How Bush can help McCain

last updated 8 January 2015

What happened

President Bush endorsed John McCain on Wednesday, hours after the Arizona senator locked up the Republican presidential nomination with fresh primary wins. Bush and McCain fought bitterly over the nomination in 2000, but Bush called McCain a man of character with the "determination to defeat an enemy and a heart big enough to love those who hurt." (Reuters)

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Bush and McCain don't have the warmest history, said Massimo Calabresi in Time.com, but they need each other now. "If anyone is going to protect the legacy of Bush's war on terror and Iraq, it is the senior Senator from Arizona." And Bush can help McCain "shore up some wavering constituencies," including a conservative base that "still doesn't trust him on sanctity of life issues like stem cell research."

McCain "went out of his way" to "express his gratitude" for Bush's help, said Michael Cooper and Elisabeth Bumiller in The New York Times (free registration). But this was clearly an "uncomfortable" moment. McCain would love to tap into Bush's "fund-raising prowess." But the last thing he needs is to be seen too often with an unpopular president at his side, so don't expect Bush to do much campaigning.

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