The McCain-Bush Two-Step: A Timeline

When it comes to George W. Bush (he of the historically unprecedented 70 percent disapproval rating) presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain is somewhat--how should we say this?--conflicted. Take this week, for example:

June 3, 2008, McCain Speech in New Orleans, La.: "You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false... I have worked with the President to keep our nation safe. But he and I have not seen eye to eye on many issues."

June 4, 2008, Rush Limbaugh to McCain: "If you run around and you make a big deal out of trying to distance yourself from George W. Bush, you are going to pay for it in ways that you can't understand, because the one thing, of many, that separates Republicans and conservatives from those mealymouthed little creeps and kooks and wackos on the left, they respect a leader who they think has done his best. And they are loyal. And the one person, the one thing that is threatening Republican Party loyalty right now is the very McCain campaign, not George W. Bush. So if you think that you gotta run around and distance yourself from George W. Bush, and if that's how you have to get elected, think again."

June 6, 2008, "John McCain Says He Won't Run from Bush in Campaign," USA Today: [During an interview Thursday] Republican John McCain said he won't try to "separate" himself from a weakened President Bush or his unpopular handling of the war in Iraq to try to win the general election against Barack Obama, who has made opposition to the war a focus of the Democratic campaign... As for his ties to his onetime rival Bush, McCain stressed that he is not trying to distance himself in the fall to win over independents, who are a key part of the electorate in battlegrounds such as New Hampshire and Oregon. "I'm not trying to separate myself," he said.

Despite what Barack Obama may say, John McCain is not George W. Bush. For one thing, he doesn't give people silly nicknames. Also, he's criticized Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, slammed Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina relief as "terrible" and "disgraceful," and broken with Bush on global warming, campaign-finance reform, taxes and government spending.

Now if only he could only stick to that story...