POLITICAL BRIEFING
MAYBE NEXT YEAR: Every February, President Bush and his wife, Barbara, have braved the frigid temperatures of coastal Maine to visit their seaside home in Kennebunkport. They had hoped to make such a trek this year, but the changed political landscape has forced a change of plans.
The Bushes at one time intended to do some quick campaigning in neighboring New Hampshire on the weekend before the Feb. 18 presidential primary there, then head for Kennebunkport. But now comes word that while the President is likely to make two visits to New Hampshire the week before the election, he’ll avoid his favored vacation spot--just as he avoided it during much of the 1988 campaign.
Back then, Bush aides worried that photographs of him on the 11-acre estate would project an image of affluence that would set him apart from the average voter. Such concerns are multiplied this year, when the attention of the average New Hampshire voter is riveted on the struggling economy.
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