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The Bush ProblemJohn Dickerson takes readers' questions about how McCain should handle his ties to the president.

Posted Thursday, July 31, 2008, at 3:02 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

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John Dickerson: Hey, thanks for watching Washington Week, the show in which I somehow can't talk at less than 100 mph. I think these attacks do damage to a candidate with what we might call a nontraditional résumé, but McCain has a big downside I think. He can't talk about Straight Talk when he's been running the ads he has.

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St. Paul, Minn.: John,

Love your reporting keep up the good work!!

Do you think it's possible President Bush won't even speak at the convention? His approval ratings are as low as Nixon's, but didn't have the "benefits of resigning" (as you mentioned in your piece). Could these ratings cause McCain's campaign to ask him not to show? What do they have to lose, especially after the bad summer McCain has had thus far? If Bush does speak at the convention, will this be the first time a sitting President will significantly hurt his own party's nominee by giving a convention speech? Looking forward to my hometown being the center of the storm.

John Dickerson: He can't duck out now. It's on the schedule and the WH has announced it.

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Crestwood, N.Y.: Thanks for the article; I was wondering about this myself. Since the attendees are mostly big fans of Bush, I would think he'll give a valedictory talking about how he saved us from another attack and made the tough choices, blah blah blah with no apologies. A Giuliani speech; 911 all the time. Anything else would be hugely out of character—can't you hear "My Way" playing in the background already? My question is how the nets and cable will cover it, or if they will cover it at all live.

Also, has McCain taken on so many Rove people, neocons and federalistas at this point that the strategy regarding the Bush appearance won't necessarily be that of the candidate, but one made by loyal Bushies? The guy currently calling the shots, who is behind all these crypto-racist ads, is from the Rove family; the former McCain advisers have been shunted to the side.

John Dickerson: I haven't seen a single ad that fits this description or comes close.

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NYC: Bush had several heavy handed domestic policies that mostly failed (Social Security, immigration). How much do you think it hurts McCain that he's more of the same?

John Dickerson: Interesting question. SS was a huge failure. People didn't want it. For a time, the country did want "comprehensive immigration reform." McCain is all over the map on these two issues. He was for SS reform and has talked about it recently (getting in trouble with his base for appearing to countenance a payroll tax increase). On immigration he's moved around some but still ticks off huge portions of his base because he supported what they called amnesty.

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Re: Bush's 20 percent: His base, his supporters will be there. Will we see a convention dedicated to them or to the TV audience that checks in for about 5 minutes a night, 3 times during the week?

John Dickerson: The convention is all about the TV audience.

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St. Louis: Is the Presidential race actually closer than the polls indicate. The reason I ask is I work as a door greeter at a large "box" store, and the only Obama campaign buttons I see are worn only by African-Americans. Seems like even "yellow dog" white Democrats are hesitant about their support. Or, is my impression wrong?

John Dickerson: Hard to say where the race is. It's a horrible year for Republicans so McCain should be in worse shape. But people still have doubts about Obama. McCain is trying to increase those doubts. Here's the question though: when people pay attention to Obama will they buy in. That's what happened in many places during the primaries. He was stuck in July 07 and then he took off—slowly up up he went.

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Pure Cynicism: Do something that temporarily worked for Clinton when the Lewinsky stuff was supposed to be first breaking: Find a new country to bomb, so he gets called away from the convention. How's that work out?

John Dickerson: My former colleague Hugh Sidey used to joke, quoting a Johnson adviser during Vietnam: "we need a new war." Not a joke any more...

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Helena, Montana: President Bush has recently given us numerous glimpses of his sense of rhythm and tap dancing skills. I suggest giving him a 4 or 5 minute slot (and a company of backup dancers) to star in a well-produced number ala the Tony or Grammy Award shows.

This could be construed as below the US President's dignity, but it would be a fitting swan song... and party conventions are all about theatre these days anyway.

John Dickerson: There might be dancers outside the arena during the speech to distract from it.

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Alexandria, Va.: I would just like to comment that it would be a mistake to disrespect the President in any way. Even though his approval ratings are very low, there is a core group of people that really love President Bush. It's amazing to me how high his approval ratings were after 9/11, but then when having to make the tough decisions to prevent another 9/11 many people change their opinions completely. This is the price you pay by not being a poll driven President. Unlike Bill Clinton who didn't kill Bin laden when he had the chance for fear or what the rest of the world would think.

John Dickerson: I don't think there will be any disrespect. I just think the McCain camp will do everything short of putting an enormous book on page and actually having the candidate turn the page.