Bush Steps From Shadows to Rally GOP Voters

Oct. 28, 2006 — -- President Bush rallied Republicans in southern Indiana this afternoon as he launched a last-ditch effort to try to keep Congress in his party's hands.

"Election Day is 10 days away and we're going to sprint to the finish line," Bush, in rolled-up shirtsleeves and without a tie, told a boisterous, pom-pom shaking crowd. "We'll control the House of Representatives and we'll control the U.S. Senate."

Today's rally for GOP Rep. Mike Sodrel, R-Ind., in the Silver Creek High School gymnasium in Sellersburg, Ind. -- which is about 10 miles north of Louisville, Ky., and the Ohio River -- was the first rally aimed at a broad audience that the president has participated in for the midterm congressional elections, which are just 10 days away.

With polls showing GOP control of the House vulnerable because of voter unhappiness over the president's handling of the Iraq war, many Republican candidates are trying to distance themselves from the president. So far, he's appeared with 15 Republican candidates, compared with 29 events in the same period before the 2002 midterm elections.

Until today, all Bush's campaign trail appearances had been at fundraising events, where the audiences are hardcore party supporters who provide financial backing for the party and its candidates. Since last year, he's raised $193 million for the Republican Party and GOP candidates who'll be on the ballot next month.

"The midterm [election] is a referendum on the president," said Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst and editor of "The Rothenberg Political Report." "The president's unpopular. Republican candidates don't want him around except to raise money. It's as simple as that."

A Newsweek poll out this weekend finds that 53 percent of likely voters said they will vote for the Democrat in their Congressional district, while 39 percent said they will vote for the Republican. Those surveyed said they trust the Democrats more than the Republicans to handle the situation in Iraq, the economy, health care, and gas and oil prices.

Public trust for the two parties was virtually tied on the questions of terrorism and "moral values" -- which both had been Republican strong suits.