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With less than four days to go until all votes are cast,
and candidates seeking any edge to sway undecideds and get their supporters to
the polls, President Bush will spend his time until Election Day on the sidelines.
Bush has no public events scheduled this weekend or on
Monday, and his only public election activity appears to be touting U.S.
democracy in his weekly radio address.
“Election season brings out the spirit of competition
between our political parties, and that competition is an essential part of a
healthy democracy,” Bush said. “But as the campaigns come to a close,
Republicans, Democrats, and independents can find common ground on at least one
point: Our system of representative democracy is one of America's
greatest strengths.”
Though Bush often uses the address to take shots at
Democratic leaders, his pre-election address was completely non-partisan and
his get out the vote effort seems to be limited to encouraging “all Americans
to go to the polls and vote.”
Even though the presidential election is largely fought
in red states, where Bush’s approval is still highest, the president has
virtually played no public role in the process to determine his successor.
However, Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has
spent a lot of resources to tie GOP rival John McCain to the unpopular
president, forcing the Arizona senator to increasingly run away from Bush.
In what may be the starkest indictment of how the McCain
camp views the president, the new GOP standard-bearer is much more willing to
tie his political fortune to a plumber than the two-term Republican incumbent
of the office he seeks to hold.
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