Wednesday, July 19, 2006
John Thune Is Running Away from George Bush
In 2004, the White House political operation recruited Thune to challenge Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. He dealt the Democratic Party a major blow, edging Daschle in South Dakota as Bush captured a second term. Thune, a conservative who rarely breaks with the GOP or Bush, said Wednesday that if he were up for re-election this year, he'd adopt a different strategy. "If I were running in the state this year, you obviously don't embrace the president and his agenda," Thune told reporters at the National Press Club. He said the Iraq war is Bush's biggest problem. [...] "Clearly we are facing a headwind if you look at the national political environment," Thune said. "The president's numbers in most places aren't good ... these are going to be tough races to win."So Thune thinks he needs to distance himself from Bush to win re-election. Will someone please ask him if he's also going to distance himself from Rovian campaign tactics, such as making secret payments to bloggers to distort the media coverage of the election ?
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