Bush to Speak on First Night of GOP Convention
Posted by Matt Ortega · July 5, 2008
President George W. Bush will speak on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Jonathan Martin of the Politico remarked:
And that will almost surely be the last we hear of him in the Twin Cities.
In St. Paul, Mr. Bush will speak on the convention’s opening night, said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary — a tiny bit of news from an administration that typically keeps a close hold on the president’s schedule. The White House and the McCain campaign said the details were still being worked out. But one Republican close to Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the president would give “an important speech” but that a joint appearance was “highly unlikely.”
There is no doubt that figures like those released by Gallup recently that showed the American people “concerned” that Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) is too similar to President Bush — a third Bush term — played some role in that decision.
The convention starts September 1 and concludes on September 4.
In an unrelated food for thought, New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote:
The last time Republicans dealt with the passing-of-the-torch question, in 1988, the circumstances were very different. President Ronald Reagan was surging in popularity, and the big fear was that he would overshadow the nominee, the first George Bush, at the convention in New Orleans. So their aides worked out a plan intended to let Mr. Reagan “give oomph to the Bush candidacy,” without stealing the show, said Kenneth W. Duberstein, Mr. Reagan’s chief of staff. [emphasis added]
Duncan Black noted, however, that polling numbers at the time of the Republican National Convention in August 1988 — and nearly for the entire year for that matter — did not show any such “surge.”
Job Performance Ratings for President Reagan
End Date: 12/27/1988
| Date | Organization | Approve | Disapprove |
No
Opinion |
Sample
Size |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/27-29/88 | Gallup | 63 | 29 | 8 | ||
| 11/11-14/88 | Gallup | 57 | 35 | 8 | ||
| 10/21-24/88 | Gallup | 51 | 38 | 11 | ||
| 9/25-10/1/88 | Gallup | 54 | 37 | 9 | ||
| 8/19-22/88 | Gallup | 53 | 37 | 10 | ||
| 7/15-18/88 | Gallup | 54 | 36 | 10 | ||
| 7/1-7/88 | Gallup | 51 | 35 | 14 | ||
| 6/24-27/88 | Gallup | 48 | 40 | 12 | ||
| 6/10-13/88 | Gallup | 51 | 39 | 10 | ||
| 5/13-22/88 | Gallup | 48 | 43 | 9 | 3021 | |
| 5/13-15/88 | Gallup | 50 | 38 | 12 | ||
| 4/8-11/88 | Gallup | 50 | 39 | 11 | ||
| 3/8-12/88 | Gallup | 51 | 37 | 12 | ||
| 3/4-7/88 | Gallup | 50 | 42 | 8 | ||
| 1/22-25/88 | Gallup | 49 | 40 | 11 | 2061 | |
| 1/8-17/88 | Gallup | 50 | 41 | 9 | 2109 |
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