Republicans Weighing the Benefits of Bush’s Embrace
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: February 10, 2008
WASHINGTON — With his job approval ratings hovering around 30 percent and four-fifths of Americans believing the country is on the wrong track, some Republicans say the best thing President Bush could do this election season would be to simply stay out of the way.
But as Republicans coalesce around Senator John McCain of Arizona as their party’s 2008 presidential nominee, top advisers to Mr. McCain said they were eager for Mr. Bush’s embrace. And senior White House aides said they were plotting strategy for how Mr. Bush could use the power of his office — by raising money, setting the agenda and even stumping for Republicans in red states — to keep the presidency in Republican hands.
“We understand that once there’s a nominee, the president won’t be the center of attention,” Ed Gillespie, counselor to Mr. Bush, said during an interview in his West Wing office Thursday, before Mitt Romney dropped out of the race and effectively handed Mr. McCain the nomination. “But we also understand that the president is going to promote policies and take actions” intended to bolster the nominee.
In another twist to a race that has already seen many surprises, Mr. Bush is taking a more public role than expected. He gave an implicit endorsement to Mr. McCain at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. And after months of refusing to be “pundit in chief,” he will talk about the election in an interview from Camp David to be broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/us/politics/10bush.html