Bush praises McCain via satellite

ST. PAUL -- President Bush became the first president since Lyndon Johnson to skip his party's national convention Tuesday — a weather-related absence that best served the interests of Bush and the man who wants his job.

The president delivered his speech a day late and 1,100 miles short of the Xcel Energy Center here. He appeared by satellite hookup from the White House, rather than in person. He spoke for eight minutes rather than the 15 planned for Monday, before Hurricane Gustav sent him to Texas instead of Minnesota.

Keeping the president in Washington was a "mutual decision" of the White House and the McCain campaign, said Dana Perino, Bush's press secretary. With one storm gone but others approaching the Gulf Coast, she said, "it's appropriate that the president be able to be here at the White House." Bush, who was criticized for his response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is to travel to Louisiana today.

Although Bush's role was reduced, his rhetoric for John McCain was not. Bush lauded the man he defeated for the nomination in 2000 — and who has kept him at a distance in this year's campaign — as someone who's "not afraid to tell you when he disagrees — believe me, I know."

"No matter what the issue, this man is honest and speaks straight from the heart," Bush said.

McCain's disagreements with Bush are many: over tax cuts, global warming and the execution of the war in Iraq, among others. Yet Bush thanked the Arizona senator for backing last year's increase of troops in Iraq, which has been followed by reduced violence.

"John McCain's independence and character helped change history," Bush said in his remarks. "Some told him that his early and consistent call for more troops would put his presidential campaign at risk. He told them he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war.

"That is the kind of courage and vision we need in our next commander in chief."

Bush's absence — the first by a president since violence between police and protesters kept Johnson away from the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago — prompted different reactions from delegates and analysts.