Hide-and-seek politics

John Merli
Published: May 29, 2008

I’m not sure what they wound up playing, but I know what theme song they could have blared out in that hall in Phoenix earlier this week when John McCain surreptitiously squirreled George Bush inside for their covert fundraiser. When in doubt, look to John Lennon, so how about “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” by the Beatles?

When was the last time you read “covert” and “fundraiser” in the same sentence, especially with the name of the president of the United States included? If McCain has any love at all for Bush, and that’s arguable, he had a strange (albeit, politically savvy) way of showing it Tuesday night when he allowed the historically unpopular president to raise some much-needed cash for his campaign in McCain’s home state as relatively quietly as possible.

The trick for McCain, of course, was to not insult the president by asking him to stay at least 300 feet away from him at all times so as never to be seen with him in photos and on television. That would never work. With such evidence it would become irrefutably clear that, yes indeed, McCain and Bush were actually in the same room at the same time in Phoenix. But despite rumors, we may never know for sure because it was a “closed event,” as they say. Perhaps both men did their best to stumble through that awkward stage between a possible firm handshake and a full embrace that often results in those brief, three-pats-on-the-back bear hugs that most men can pull off without compromising their machismo or their political allegiances.

I referred to a “hall” as the setting for this clandestine affair, but that was being kind. What had started out to be a convention hall venue turned into a private home this week when a local Phoenix paper reported the GOP couldn’t sell enough tickets to justify a large arena. (So while George Bush may still be popular in some GOP circles, he’s not exactly the Indiana Jones of fundraisers.) And that brings us back to John McCain’s problem from now till November: How does the presumptive GOP nominee allow the really unpopular leader of his own party to raise money on his behalf, in his presence, in his home state, and not be tied to him?

Still, it could be worse for John McCain. It seems this lingering 30 percent that continues to hold the president in high esteem (and they know who they are) are also some of the party’s biggest financial contributors. It’s not like this loyal minority still really likes Bush but they’re all dead broke so what does it matter? And more power to them. Yet the GOP seems to want its cake and eat it, too. Please refrain, they argue, from saying John McCain represents a “third term” for George Bush. Sure, we’ll tap into the president’s still-considerable fundraising prowess at closed events, but we won’t tap into his politics. (Sadly, it doesn’t help that George Bush likely does not take his perpetual 70-percent negative rating personally. He should. It is personal.)

While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have the good fortune this time around to not have to worry about using the president as a fundraising magnet while keeping their distance, surely they will be on the receiving end of some campaign funds they would rather have done without. (In fact, both camps over the months have returned relatively miniscule amounts of money to lobbyists and other parties, when negative publicity cropped up.)

But despite the hovering presence of a politically incorrect former pastor, and an egotistical husband/former president, neither of them is in the unenviable position of having to pretend to justify the past eight years. When more than 80 percent of us believe we’re heading down the wrong path as a nation barely five months before a general election, as virtually all recent polls indicate, that whopping condemnation of the status quo is not largely due to John McCain. But it is largely the fault of the president, and his government, that was created largely from McCain’s own party.

And turning unwanted photo ops into closed events at fundraisers in Phoenix and elsewhere will not change that.

John Merli has been a Potomac News columnist since 1985. E-mail him at .