A Pattern Emerges

Last Thursday, President Bush went to New Hampshire to talk about the economy, two days after the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

Today, President Bush went to South Carolina to talk about homeland security, two days after the South Carolina Democratic Primary.

On Monday, President Bush will go to Missouri (topic TBA), six days after the Missouri Democratic Primary.

According to NPR, "A Bush spokesman called it just a coincidence, that the President always travels to talk about important issues. He added, 'Primaries are happening all over the country.'"

I've done the math. Not counting the nonbinding primary in Washington, DC, nine states have held primaries so far. Those nine states account for 546,038 square miles of the country, leaving 84.6% of the United States, by area, that has not held a primary in the last week and a half. There's a lot of country left that wouldn't look quite so suspicious.

New Hampshire might be called a fluke. One can even accept South Carolina as a coincidence. By the third time, people suspect a pattern is emerging. Missouri may, in fact, be a coincidence, as Bush has traveled to that state at least 14 times since taking office (info courtesy of the Springfield, MO ABC affiliate), and Bush has not yet visited 2/3 of the states that have held primaries. However, assuming next week is just part of his regularly scheduled ass-kissing of Missouri, the other two states both hosted Democratic debates recently, whereas the six states Bush has not visited did not, to my knowledge, host nationally televised debates among the Democratic candidates who called into question Bush's policies and record. Yet this is not a political move, as evidenced by the fact that the taxpayers and not the Republican Party are footing the bill.

Even if his motives are purely apolitical, one must avoid the appearance of impropriety even more than actual impropriety.