Republican '08 hopefuls seek distance from Bush

At last week's GOP presidential debate, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer served up a juicy one: "What has been President Bush's biggest mistake since taking office?"

It was an open invitation to take a swipe at the president and, in effect, violate what Ronald Reagan popularized as the 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican."

In their responses, the candidates' willingness to lob a criticism at the president seemed in reverse proportion to their position in the polls. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, still tops in national polls of GOP voters, avoided the question and declared that "Washington is a mess." But Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) of Colorado, mired at 2 percent, did not hesitate to go after Bush. "The president ran as a conservative and governed as a liberal," he said. "That is what has really been the basis, I think, of the distrust that has developed among the Republican base."

Conservative criticism of Bush is nothing new, but as the 2008 presidential race heats up – and it becomes increasingly clear that voters are looking for change – pressure is building on all the Republican candidates to distance themselves from a president seemingly stuck in the low 30s in overall job approval. The question is when and how it happens. For lower-tier candidates, who have nothing to lose, bashing Bush may feel like the only option.

For the top-tier candidates, going strongly negative against Bush during the primaries may feel risky at this point, as the president maintains a 70 percent job approval rating in the latest Gallup poll among fellow Republicans. But if the GOP nominee looks too closely aligned with Bush, it could kill his chances in the general election. So the challenge is how to start the distancing process without making what looks like a wholesale defection, Republican strategists say.

"Let's face it, whoever the Republican nominee is … he's going to wear the Iraq war around his neck like a millstone," says Tony Fabrizio, a GOP pollster not affiliated with a presidential candidate. "He's going to be looking for any way he can to put some light between himself and the president. But it's threading the needle. You don't want to depress Republican turnout."

How to handle Iraq war

On the No. 1 issue, Iraq, almost all the GOP candidates continue to back Bush's decision to go to war, while a majority of Americans call it a mistake. At this point these candidates probably cannot change their position without looking like a flip-flopper. The safer criticism, analysts say, is to go after the handling of the war. "The problem was the mismanagement of the conflict," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the last debate, after reiterating his support for the war's rationale.

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