President George H.W. Bush Endorses John McCain
George H.W. Bush stood shoulder to shoulder with John McCain on Monday, offering an endorsement to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Mathematically, statistically, symbolically and politically, McCain is just inches from winning the nomination, and the former president’s endorsement offers a signal that the Republican powerhouse family is coalescing around the candidate. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has already endorsed McCain for president.
“I did not come here to tell any other candidate what to do, a very wise man once said influence is something you always have until you actually try to exert it,” Bush said from the Houston Hobby Airport in Texas, where he was joined by his wife, Barbara.
“Now is the right time for me to help John in his effort to start building the broad base coalition it will take for our conservative values to carry the White House this fall. His character was forged in the crucible of war. His commitment to America is beyond any doubt, but most importantly he has the right values and experience to guide our nation forward at this historic moment,” said the former president.
“I think that President Bush’s endorsement honors me, I believe it will help us enormously in that process of uniting our party as we move forward,” McCain said with his wife, Cindy, by his side. “President Bush, Barbara, I can ensure you that Cindy and I will do everything we can to make sure that you are proud and that your support of our candidacy will be something that you can look back on as having been the right thing to do.”
McCain campaign officials say they expect the current President Bush to endorse the candidate once he has numerically clinched the nomination.
Asked whether he thinks the Bush endorsement spells the end of his campaign, Mike Huckabee said endorsements don’t speak for the base.
“Does his voice count more than the millions of Republicans across the country? Blue-collar Republicans that maybe don’t have platform he has? Do their votes not matter? Do the people who have been coming to our rallies suddenly just say … ’someone else from the party establishment has spoken let’s just give up and not be heard from’? That’s not how elections are supposed to work” the former Arkansas governor said while campaigning in Wisconsin.
But McCain campaign officials are working on a plan to build the national organization for a general election.
Still, five or six senior campaign insiders spent the weekend at the senator’s ranch in Sedona, Ariz., to hold a private powwow on who they should hire for that campaign; what their national electoral college map should be; how best to use President George W. Bush on the stump in terms of fundraising and campaigning; which members of Congress McCain needs to court and spend time with; and who McCain will stump for on the campaign trail.
But most pressing among those questions is how they will craft a strategy for the Democratic nominee, who is undetermined at this time. The campaign is beginning to develop to competing scenarios to challenge either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
For McCain, among his biggest challenges will be to fend off from either Democratic candidate claims that a McCain victory would amount to a third Bush term. Speaking Sunday, McCain said he has been a critic of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war, and pointed to fighting global warming and wasteful government spending as two major differences between him and the current president.
FOX News’ Carl Cameron contributed to this report.
How do we wake up America to the important issues. Federal Goverment has to get out of the TAX’S PAYER’S pockets. Federal Goverment was founded as a buffer for disputs among the states and to intervene over disputes. We need less FEDERAL CONTROL! Listen to the Candidates they all have ways of spending our hard earned money and it is not their’s too spend. Look at the budget that was past this year. How many politicians read it??????
IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE! A change back to a very Simple Federal Goverment. GIVE THE POWER BACK TO THE STATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had high hopes for Mike Hucabee I truly believe he had the middle class working person’s interest at heart. My husband served in Viet Nam and had worked two jobs for over 40 years. We have never had any handouts When we bought our home we had to pay the full interest rate while our neighbor who had just graduated from high school got a decreased interest because they made just a little less than we did when they were working one job while my husband back from Viet Nam worked 2 jobs. We both grew up poor and were very happy to be middle class but the middle class has become the poor. Their are people who are getting emergency fuel who already have fuel but the goverment sends them a letter telling them that they can get fuel even though they already have fuel.
A lot of rich people are politicians and do not feel the pain of the middle class and they are very busy giving the working man’s money to the poor and not letting the middle class who have worked hard keep enough of their hard earned money for dental, funeral expences. medical that is not covered by insurance. The goverment has got to quite taking the middle class persons money. Long ago the rich man, family and the churches use to help the poor. Now the rich are running the goverment and taking the middlemans money to help the poor.
We are now in retirement and you still want to take our money and give it to the less foruante. We are the less fortunate. WAKE UP AMERICA BEFORE THERE IS NO MIDDLE CLASS BECAUSE YOU ARE DISTROYING OUR INCENTIVES and before long we will be gone. AMERICANS NEED GAS TO GET TO WORK without jobs and interaction of the working person MIDDLE CLASS WILL BE DESTROY AND THE GREATEST INTERACTION MAN HAS EVER KNOWN DEMOCRACY WILL BE NO MORE.
WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP, HEAR OUR CRY’S AS LONG WHEN WE LEFT ENGLAND BECAUSE THEY DID NOT HEAR US WHEN WE LONGED FOR NEW FREEDOMS SO VERY LONG AGO. Now I pray John McCain will hear us.
I think Mike Huckabee is the only option for me. If you check out his website you will see that he is the man for the job.
check out his website: http://www.mikehuckabee.com
See below quote from Mike:
“My candidacy is, and always has been, about convictions – and the issues and core values that are critical to our country’s future, such protecting traditional marriage, the sanctity of life, individual empowerment and a revamping of our federal tax code to encourage productivity. It’s about lifting Americans up, from hope to higher ground, with a positive vision for America’s future that is grounded in a belief in our nation’s basic goodness, and defined by a ‘can—do’ spirit that knows how to gets things done. My goal is to offer Republican voters, a voice and a choice in this election.
The media doesn’t give him much credit or time but I think it is because if the people hear what he has to say he will prove them all wrong and win this thing.
Go Mike
Kim - TN
Christine spake:
“I went to a Huck meeting and there were several great 20-somethings there, with jobs, school, values and great enthusiasm for the election. Too bad the GOP doesn’t even seem to be trying to pay attention.”
Several? As many as that? And the Republicans haven’t shoved McCain aside in favor of Huckabee yet? Well, they are blockheads, then, aren’t they? Crimony!
Pay attention Republicans!
No Surprise that this comes just before the Texas primary where Huckabee is rumored to be leading in the Texas race. I guess they figured if the Govenor of Texas could not force him to drop out of the race then they will try Texas’s most popular conservative. Theres just one problem, John McCain’s record for the last 7 years! Because John McCain isn’t a conservative.
When all these big named republicans throw their support behind a man that we know is not conservative and try to convince us that he is, it really hurts their credibillity, and makes the party look bad.
Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer are simply the best , period.