updated 12:51 p.m. EDT, Fri October 24, 2008
Bush on campaign trail: Out of sight but not out of mind
"
Look ... if my showing up and endorsing him helps him, or if I'm against him and it helps him -- either way, I want him to win," Bush said as he stood next to McCain in March in the Rose Garden. "
You know, look, this is an age-old question that you -- every president has had to answer, and there's an appropriate amount of campaigning for me to do."
One way that seemed appropriate then was enlisting the president's help in rallying crucial members of the GOP base behind McCain.
"President Bush does have a poor approval rating right now, ... but he's still well liked by really conservative Republicans," Preston said.
McCain's vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, now fills that role, Preston said.
"Sarah Palin is the bridge now to the base Republican voters, voters who might not have been energized by the McCain candidacy," he said.
"So when you see him go off and criticize President Bush as we have recently in the past week in The Washington Times, he still has Sarah Palin to be the bridge to the Republican base. A base that has not always supported him," Preston added.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/24/bush.trail/index.html