Much was said before Tuesday's bellwether gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey that Republican losses there would be a huge blow to President Bush and a wake up call to the GOP that the president's political capital is depleted. There is no greater evidence of that than today's apparent snub of Bush by No.3 Senate Republican Rick Santorum (PA), who's facing a tough 2006 re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Bob Casey Jr., the state's treasurer, who's held a steady double-digit lead in the polls.
The president will be in Wilkes-Barre today to give one his patented cheerleading speeches on the war on terror, no doubt linking Saddam and Iraq within the first five minutes as usual. But Santorum has other plans. Due to a "scheduling conflict," he'll be 16 miles away in Philadelphia speaking before the American legion.
It took some time, but Bush has become the black plague to Republican incumbents. Tuesday's victories by Va's Tim Kaine and NJ's Jon Corzine is an early barometer into voters' dissatisfaction with the status quo. Bush's sagging popularity--a historically low 35% approval rating--combined with the quagmire in Iraq, mounting policy failures and multiple scandals has become a drain and a liability to those GOPers seeking reelection next year. Case in point is Bush's 11th-hour visit to Richmond earlier this week to stump for Kilgore, which likely pushed many more Democrats and independents to the polls to send a message of their dissatisfaction with the current leadership.
"Republicans have every reason to be concerned," said Terry Madonna, a political analyst and pollster based at Franklin and Marshall College. "Santorum needs a degree of separation, to establish independence from the President so voters believe he represents their interests."
Santorum's spokesman Robert Traynham denies the Senator has calculatingly distanced himself from the president, and insists it's nothing more than a scheduling conflict. I suspect we'll be seeing many more "scheduling conflicts" between now and next November.
5 comments:
This sanctimonious jackass knows after the election in Jersey that the people of the Northeast have had it with the Bush/GOP BS. Watch for him to continue to distance himself and start to really play down the Bible Banging Rap. As a person born and raised and formally living in PA I can say that the people of the Northeast have a highly sensitive BS meter. That meter has been going off the charts since Bush and the GOP have seized power in DC. If this clown knows what’s good for him he’ll never mention Bush or be seen with him again. All he need do is look what happen to that Clown in VA after Bush showed up there at the 11th hour to campaign.
joe
Johnny,
You got that right. All that is happening to Bush and the GOP has been a long time coming.They did it all to themselves. I tried to explain this to Popeye,but as usual if it goes against the GOP/FOX NEWS line...it does not Compute.
joe
Joe Smoe...Send some Northeastern BS meters to Utah, Quick!!
Signed,
A blue stater stuck in the dumbest red state ever - Utah
Hey A blue stater stuck in the dumbest red state ever - Utah,
I could send a tractor-trailer full of them to ya, but don't think it would do any good. However with the shrubs Poll numbers at an all time low it would appear that the Red State Slack Jaws have awoken to reality a year too late.
Have no fear my friend, I also live in a Red State, but anymore I don’t hear too much squawking from the locals anymore about what a savior the Shrub is. Give it time the USS BUSHCO will sink from the weight of it’s own missteps and failures.
Just because a republican is distancing himself from the president it is no time for a democrat to stand back and watch with a smug smile. Democrats need to keep the public aware of whom these people are as they try to make themselves over as a new republican. who cares how much bush is hurt as he isn’t coming back anyway
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