President Bush says John McCain is a “True Conservative”.
…But, that, “He may have to work harder to convince other conservatives that he is one of their own.”
No kidding.
On FOX News this morning President Bush told anchor Chris Wallace that McCain’s a “true conservative”:
Well, there you have it- And, there it is.
That’s a tough sell for the president.
Bush had this to say about Senator McCain and Huck, via FOX News:
McCain “is very strong on national defense,” Bush said in an interview with “FOX News Sunday.” “He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I’m concerned.”
But when asked about criticism of McCain by conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, the president said, “I think that if John is the nominee, he has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative and I’ll be glad to help him if he is the nominee.”
Bush said some of the criticism of the Arizona senator was the result of “probably, some personal animosity toward me. You can’t please all the people all the time.”
Asked during the interview about GOP candidate Mike Huckabee’s criticism of his foreign policy, Bush said: “I’m sure that you can find quotes from people running for office that sound like they’re at odds with me. But the point — what really matters in a campaign what are the basic beliefs.”
Regarding attacks on his performance from Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Bush said, “If the Democrat party feels like they can win an election by focusing on me, I think they’ll be making a huge tactical mistake.”
So the question is:
Does Bush have a death wish for the Republican Party or does he think he can convince enough principled conservatives to forget about McCain’s anti-Republican past?
RELATED… Davids Medienkritik has more on the sophisticated European view of Bush.
UPDATE: Bush also said during the interview that if Democrats focus on his record then Republicans will win.
Of course, the media’s distortions always seem to help out the dems- something the president has not quite caught on to, yet.
UPDATE 2: McCain-Huck: A Ticket Made in Hell.
