Republican '08 hopefuls seek distance from Bush

For lower-tier candidates, bashing Bush may seem like the only option. Top-tier candidates may find it too risky now to go negative against the president.

from the June 13, 2007 edition

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A wild card in Bush-bashing calculus

One wild card in the Bush-bashing calculations of presidential candidates may be Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House who is still considering jumping into the '08 race and has been an increasingly vocal critic of the Bush administration. Mr. Gingrich has a following; he polls in the high single digits in the GOP field among Republican voters, fifth among 12 candidates or quasi-candidates.

If Gingrich does decide to run, his open warfare with the White House would undoubtedly become a feature of the campaign and, if it proves effective, could spur other major candidates to follow his lead. In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Gingrich called the Republican Party in "collapse," implying that Bush is to blame. And in a speech last Friday to the American Enterprise Institute, Gingrich warned that if the Republicans run a "stand-pat" presidential candidate who is seen as "representing four more years," the party will lose.

Ever since Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidential election last month – succeeding a member of his own party, Jacques Chirac, while being a harsh critic of him – Gingrich has pointed to that victory as a model for the GOP in the US. "In France, voting for change meant voting for the party in office, but not the personality in office," Gingrich wrote recently.

Some observers say that it's too late for any of the major GOP candidates to run against Bush. "[Sarkozy] overtly ran away from Chirac long ago," says Mr. Fabrizio.

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