Bush welcomes McCave to Rose Garden: GOP up

President Bush, who has refrained from a role in his party's presidential campaign until now, plans to welcome Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the party's putative 2008 nominee, to the White House tomorrow.

Bush's backing is a double-edged sword for McCain, who fought Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries and who critized the Bush administration for its early conduct of the war in Iraq and its treatment of suspected terrorists in captivity. McCain has aligned with Bush on the latest war strategy and has insisted that torture is illegal under any circumstances.

The president's endorsement represents a consolidation of the Republican Party for a candidate who greatly needs to convince the conservative base that he is conservative enough.

Yet the public embrace of a president whose public approval has hovered at an average of 33 perccent for the past year in the Gallup Poll will readily be taken by his Democratic opponent as a symbol that a vote for McCain is a vote for a continuation of the Bush White House.
At the White House on Wednesday, Bush plans a noon welcome for McCain at the North Portico -- a grand formal entrance at the front door of the mansion. Bush will host a lunch for McCain in the private dining room.

Bush then plans a public statement with John McCain in the Rose Garden.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/bush_welcomes_mccain_to_rose_g.html