The Chimperator and the GOP Convention

I find it all too appropriate - Divine justice perhaps - that the GOP is fretting over what to do with the Chimperator as the GOP Convention date gets closer. The same people who blindly rubber stamped and supported the cretinous Chimperator's every move are worried about him being too visible at the Party's August Convention. Heaven forbid that his visibility remind the public that all John McCain is offering is a Bush III regime. As if the first two Bush terms have not caused disaster enough. I sincerely hope that the Chimperator remains out of touch with reality, continues to see himself as a major asset for the Party and refuses to be invisible. The GOP establishment created, supported, and otherwise enabled the monster and it is only fair that they must live with the consequences. The nation is certainly paying a price for their misdeeds. Here are highlights from a New York Times story that looks at the GOP's distress:

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What if your family was planning a big end-of-summer bash (a Grand Old Party, you might call it) but preferred that you not be seen — or heard? That is the question hanging over President Bush, with eight weeks to go until Republicans gather in St. Paul to nominate Senator John McCain as his successor. Convention planners, the White House and the McCain campaign are wrestling with how to choreograph a proper send-off for Mr. Bush — sure, his poll numbers are in the tank, but he is still the party leader and president of the United States — while hustling him out the door in time for Mr. McCain to look like his own man.

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A convention is a pivot point, and the theatrics and imagery are often more important than the words. For Mr. McCain, of Arizona, the convention imagery will be especially important, because he must show that he wants to take the nation in a new direction, away from Mr. Bush, yet he cannot escape Mr. Bush’s dominance of Republican Party politics for the last eight years.

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This year, of course, Mr. McCain is trying to escape from Mr. Bush’s shadow. Most Republicans say Mr. Bush should play whatever role Mr. McCain wants him to. Some, like Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, simply wish Mr. Bush would keep out of it, though few would say so openly. “I don’t think there are a lot of people who want to see him at the convention,” said Mr. Rohrabacher, who is especially irked with Mr. Bush for his stance on immigration. He said the president “should stay home from the Republican convention, and everybody would be better off.”

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[T]he crux of the Republicans’ 2008 convention quandary: If the imagery coming out of St. Paul looks like a McCain-Bush hug fest, the Arizona senator will turn off voters who are through with Mr. Bush and want to move past him. If the imagery looks like Mr. McCain is trying to file for some kind of Republican divorce, it will turn off party conservatives who are already skeptical of Mr. McCain. So Republicans may just have to grit their teeth.