Obama rips McCain & Bush over fundraiser

Yesterday, (video above) Barack Obama took a swipe at John McCain for his fundraiser in Arizona with President Bush, which was behind closed doors. A partial transcript:

I just had the privilege of visiting with Felicitas Rosel and Francisco Cano at their home here in Las Vegas.

Today, John McCain is having a different kind of meeting. He's holding a fundraiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras. No reporters. And we all know why. Senator McCain doesn't want to be seen, hat-in-hand, with the President whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years.

That's damn right. McCain wants to suckle from the president's fundraising teats, but he doesn't want any pictures with a president who has the worst approval rating of any president since Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. Here's hoping voters aren't fooled by McCain's cozy relationship with Bush that goes all the way back to late 2000. The only time McCain has put any sort of distance between himself and Bush was when he decided to run for the presidency. And even since then, it hasn't been nearly enough.

Reuters explores the complex and delicate relationship McCain will have with the president this fall:

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has said he wants help from Bush, who can haul in enormous campaign cash. But McCain has walked a fine line with the unpopular Bush, backing the president on the Iraq war while bucking him on how to address climate change.

Bush will kick off raising money for McCain on Tuesday and Wednesday at three events in Arizona and Utah, but they will only be together at one and it will be out of the public eye. That has raised questions about whether Bush helps or hurts the Arizona senator.

[Snip...]

"The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006 when we lost 30 seats," Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, said in a memo to fellow Republicans.

[Snip...]

"[Bush] is poisoning the well for Republican congressional candidates and for John McCain," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "I think McCain's chances depend in part on whether Bush and his White House team can manage to get Bush up around 40 (percent) again," referring to the president's approval rating.

That's a pretty interesting analysis, and the last point by Sabato I find very entertaining - get Bush back up to around 40 percent? I have a better chance of becoming president than that happening, but only time will tell.

If Obama is smart, he will spend a significant amount of his campaign cash doing precisely what he describes in the footage above, and that's re-running pictures over and over and over again of McCain hugging Bush, as well as his many appearances with him, including this spring's press conference in the Rose Garden. It may not "stick" in terms of political damage to McSame, but it's a point worth reminding voters about, without question.

So, just how much has McCain actually voted to favor of Bush's position on issues? See below...

This according to the Congressional Quarterly, via Progressive Media. I guess we can conclude that the answer to the question I posed above is "a great deal," to say the least.

One other noteworthy statistic about McCain's Senatorial conduct this year - as WaPo reports, he's also the most absent senator in 2008 as well. And running for president should not be an excuse, for any senator, period, to miss important Senate votes. I don't know the statistics that compare Obama, Clinton and McCain, but I have read in recent weeks and months where Obama and Clinton have jumped on planes to get back to Washington for critical votes. I can't remember the last time I heard McCain doing the same thing. Heaven forbid a McCain fundraiser ever gets in the way of his obligations as a U.S. Senator. Ooops.

h/t Crooks & Liars for the McBush portrait