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Election result vital for Bush
07/11/2006 10:18 - (SA)
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| George W Bush speaks at a campaign rally in Dallas on the last day of campaigning before congressional elections. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP) |
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Crawford, Texas - The president's name is not on the election day ballot, yet it is George W Bush who is influencing the outcome of the campaign - one that determines the political potency of his final two years in office.
On Tuesday, at the Crawford fire station near his ranch, Bush will do what he has been prodding voters to do on his campaign swing through 10 states: vote Republican.
The Republican party says the president's five-day sprint through heavily Republican areas helped fire up the party's political troops. The hope is that the well-oiled, get-out-the-vote operation will be enough to fend off the Democrats' aggressive push to capture control of congress.
Privately, however, Republicans acknowledge that their party has a slim chance of retaining the house of representatives after tight campaign races that, in many states, have turned into a referendum on the president himself, turmoil in Iraq and political scandals.
All of the house's 435 seats are at stake, as are 33 of the senate's 100.
Bush 'energising voters'
Bush, quick to denounce political prognosticators, put a positive spin his party's chances.
"I knew we were going to finish strong," Bush said at a rally in Arkansas where the audience was pumped up by a university band banging drums and cymbals.
"I knew that we were going to come roarin' into election day because we've got the right position on taxes, we've got the right position on what it takes to protect you from attack."
Sara Taylor, White House political director, said the president's presence helped at each stop on his final push to election day.
For example, she said, Bush's trip to Sugar Land, Texas, on October 30 helped the write-in candidacy of Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to replace former house majority Leader Tom DeLay, who resigned amid investigations about his fundraising.
"He is energising voters in contested races in areas where turnout will make the difference," Taylor said.
Out to beat the odds
In recent history, the best any party has done when the popularity of the man sitting in the Oval Office has dipped below 50% was in 1978.
That year, when President Carter's approval was 49%, his party lost 15 seats in the house, the same number that Democrats need to regain control of the house this year.
Out to beat the odds, Bush, his shirt sleeves rolled up, bounded onto the stage at each rally in Montana, Nevada, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Florida, Arkansas and Texas.
Bush's schedule for the last lap took him to places like Elko, Nevada, and other small to mid-size cities where he could create a buzz and draw wall-to-wall coverage from local media.
- AP
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