Bush formally endorses McCain

President Bush gave Sen. John McCain a no-holds-barred endorsement today as the winner of the chase for the Republican presidential nomination, and said he would campaign for the Republican ticket as much as McCain wants.

With the two standing side-by-side at the edge of the sun-drenched White House Rose Garden, the senator from Arizona said he welcomed Bush’s support.

Reflecting the president’s low standing in polls, with only about 30% of those surveyed approving of his job performance, the president and his aides made liberal use of an old political joke – offering Bush’s support, or, if McCain preferred, his opposition.

“Either way, I want him to win,” the president said. Playing down his role – and potential impact – Bush added: “They’re not going to be voting for me.”

The president’s official blessing of McCain’s success in the Republican primary campaign brings to the fore the roller-coaster relationship he and the senator have had for nearly a decade, after they competed strenuously – and at times bitterly – for the party’s presidential nomination in 2000. But McCain moved to patch up their differences, campaigning for Bush in the general elections in 2000 and 2004, moderating some of his stands on social issues to more closely match Bush’s and speaking out in support of the increased troop deployment in Iraq that Bush announced in January 2007.

While Bush and McCain had lunch in the president’s private dining room, their top political aides dined together elsewhere in the White House, and stood together at the side of the Rose Garden while the two men spoke with reporters.

Bush singled out McCain’s return from the near-death of his campaign last year, and said the senator had demonstrated the sort of “strength of character and perseverance” demanded of a president.

McCain said he was “humbled” by Bush’s support, and said several times he looked forward to Bush’s making time to campaign for him.

When the two were asked about one of the crucial decisions facing McCain – the choice of a running mate – Bush referred to his own selection of Dick Cheney, who had run the search for qualified candidates after Bush had locked up the GOP nomination. He joked that McCain should “be careful who he names to be head of his selection committee.”

Regardless of the choice, the president said, “people don’t vote for vice presidents,” but for the candidate who will sit in the Oval Office.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush would help raise money for the Republican race, and work for the election of Republican majorities in the House and Senate, aiming to energize Republican voters, with whom she said he remains popular.

“Across the board, Republicans are going to support President Bush and Sen. McCain,” Perino said. But, picking up McCain’s efforts to set himself apart from the president at times, she said: “He has blazed his own trail.”

james.gerstenzang@latimes.com

maeve.reston@latimes.com