MCCAIN: I hope that the President will find time from his busy schedule to be out on the campaign trail with me, and I will be very privileged to have the opportunity of being again on the campaign trail with him -- only slightly different roles this time. (Laughter.)
Until recently, Mr. Bush was giving talks about the battered economy on nearly a daily basis, prompting some Republicans to grumble privately that so much presidential face time was hurting their election chances. This week, Mr. Bush stepped back, holding just four public events, none with real policy implications.
He hosted two foreign leaders, the presidents of Paraguay and the Kurdistan Regional Government, at the White House, stepping before the cameras for a total of 11 minutes. He gave the graduation speech at the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, Va. And he and Mrs. Bush hosted a light-hearted celebration in honor of the 150th birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, complete with a bespectacled Roosevelt impersonator who looked about the East Room and commented wryly, “Well, I must say, I like what you’ve done with the place."
Photo: Brooklyn, NY, Oct. 31
--Michael Crowley