Reasoning Reason

The Bush Administration has made many a strategic blunder in its reign over American politics, but recently the Administration has generally made good decisions in its last few months in office in an effort to shape its legacy more positively. The general public strongly dislikes the Administration and views any connection between presidential candidate John McCain and George Bush as a negative one. McCain has tried to distance himself from Bush and generally has been successful. He does in fact differ greatly from Bush in his stances, perhaps with the exception of the economy, but has still been tied to Bush by the Obama campaign.

Recently, however, the Bush Administration has made changes that support Obama's stances. General Petraeus predicts that a number of troops will be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan in a few months, the U.S. successfully negotiated with North Korea to destruct the cooling tower of its nuclear reactor, and the #3 U.S. diplomat is hours away from beginning negotiations with Iran. Obama has stated his intentions to do exactly these things for some time, McCain has consistently opposed these tactics, and the Bush Administration has not supported these methods until recently. Yet as America starts implementing doctrines preached by Obama, Obama's lead over McCain in the polls shrinks. Why? Is Obama hurt by the implementation of his policies by such a disliked president in George W. Bush? McCain's advice has been shrugged off in all of Bush's latest actions with the exception of the plan to repeal the off-shore oil-drilling ban--a move Congress will surely veto.

Perhaps Bush's greatest assistance to McCain's campaign could be implementing Obama's policies in the current environment of pessimistic Americans (in a mental recession) that believe Bush can do no right. What if Bush enacted Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan today? The U.S. progress in Iraq would crumble because the military needs the extra time between now and the presidential inauguration to train the Iraqi troops and build a foundation upon which the Iraqi people can progress. McCain would reciprocate Obama's "told-ya-so about the war" rhetoric, and would be revered as in Petraeus-like proportions. (This is not to say that Petraeus has not done a good job, as the progess made is remarkable. However, much of this progress must be attributed to the Sunnis that switched allegiances and the Iraqi brigades that have joined the fight.)

But of course all of this would deepen the Bush Administration's reputational grave as a sacrifice to a McCain-led future. Which means Bush will retain his probation status, preventing him from being in the same general vicinity/state (D.C. is not a state) as McCain.

Oh, unless McCain needs cash.