Republicans fear Bush address before election

[sabra]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9960272/

Republicans fear Bush address before election
Financial Times

After a tiring four-day trip to Latin America, President George W. Bush was due to address a crowd of several thousand on Monday night in Richmond at what was optimistically dubbed a "Virginia Victory Rally" ahead of Tuesday's vote in the tight gubernatorial race.

While the president's ability to mobilise supporters could play a critical role in electing Jerry Kilgore, the Republican candidate who has watched his double-digit lead shrink to zero, Mr Bush's decision to attend comes at a sensitive time. It threatens to make the Virginia election a referendum on his diminishing political and electoral appeal.

There is clearly concern among Republicans and in the White House over the prospect that both of the two governor's races on Tuesday – in Virginia and New Jersey – could be lost. That would add to fears about the party's chances in 2006, and lead to even more open breaches between candidates seeking to distance themselves from the president.

In Virginia, Mr Kilgore had appeared to be doing just that. When Mr Bush gave a keynote speech on the "war on terror" last month in Richmond, Mr Kilgore was notable by his absence. He used the politically convenient excuse of "scheduling conflicts" to explain why he was not at Mr Bush's side.

Can anyone say Diebold?

[AX10]

1. Do we have people in place to monitor the elections?

[William769]

2. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day.

[Initech]

3. Actually, this looks something along the lines of "Dewey Defeats Truman"

[ClintonTyree]

4. I have no doubt Kilgore will win in a "squeaker".

"Squeaker" meaning vote tampering and other illegal Republican voter fraud. I'm sure people are watching but it's hard to keep an eye on things when the votes are counted on machines that have no paper trail and can be hacked.
We have to get a handle on this before next year's midterms or this country is royally screwed.

[...of J.Temperance]

5. I don't trust Junior going the night before the election, because

Junior's a street thug and he's probably going to Virginia to PERSONALLY threaten someone...like maybe Virginia's SoS for instance.

[ComerPerro]

6. That's funny