Washington – President Bush, campaigner in chief for a party in peril, set out on a rescue mission for embattled candidates in the unlikeliest of places Thursday as Republicans struggled to minimize their losses in Tuesday’s elections.
Democrats expressed growing optimism that their long season out of power might soon end. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senate campaign organization, claimed strong early voting in a longshot race in Arizona and said it was “harbinger of a wave” that would benefit his party.
Five days before the election, Democratic strategists said none of their incumbents in either house of Congress was trailing – and Republicans did not disagree.
The GOP side of the political ledger was far less positive. Strategists already have written off the re-election prospects of incumbent Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio, as well as six or more seats in GOP hands in the House.
Dozens more Republican lawmakers – power brokers and backbenchers, conservatives and moderates – struggled to survive in a campaign shadowed by the war in Iraq and scandal at home.
“We’ve been through this before,” Bush said in Billings, Mont., projecting confidence as he embarked on his save-the-majority tour. “…We will win the Senate, and we will win the House.”
The pre-election flight plan for Air Force One consisted of areas of the country where Republicans are in trouble – House seats in Colorado, rural Nevada and Kansas, and gubernatorial races in Arkansas, Iowa and Nevada, as well as Sen. Conrad Burns’ bid for a fourth Senate term in Montana.
Western Nebraska also was ticketed for a presidential visit, with Bush’s presence deemed needed to save a House seat that Democrats last held 50 years ago.
Democrats must pick up 15 seats to gain control of the House. Their magic number is six in the Senate.
Democrats said they were winning because of the public’s growing dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq.
Polls show more Americans – now a clear majority – see the war as a mistake, and far fewer support how the president has handled the conflict.
Bush showed no signs of flinching as he spoke to a crowd in Billings.
“Imagine this: We’re in the midst of a war on terror, and one of the most fundamental fights is in Iraq, and yet the Democrats have no plan for victory. They have no idea how to win. Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory.”
