A Presidential Vanishing Act, by Design

It’s the week before Election Day. Do you know where your president is?

Probably not, and that is by design. With Senator John McCain lagging behind in the polls and many other Republicans fighting for their political lives, the nation’s top Republican — President Bush — is intentionally lying low this week, and is likely to do so until after Americans cast their ballots to pick his successor.

Mr. Bush, an ardent student of politics, knows what it feels like to be down in the polls, and he is keeping a careful eye on the campaign. Earlier this week, he made a surprise visit to the headquarters of the Republican National Committee to offer thanks to those who have served him for the past eight years, and deliver a little pep talk to lift the spirits of beleaguered McCain supporters.

“He talked about how he was never supposed to win a campaign,” said one person who attended, speaking anonymously because the session was off-the-record. “He talked about how in ’94, 2000, 2004, they always said he had no chance, and he just encouraged us, to say it’s just important to keep doing what we’re doing and keep working hard.”

The message was not entirely surprising. What was striking is that Mr. Bush chose to deliver it in private. Presidential visits to campaign headquarters are routine business in election years; the day before voters cast their ballots in 2000, President Bill Clinton dropped in on Democratic headquarters in Little Rock, Ark. to buck up campaign volunteers, even as he conceded that he had no idea which way the race between Vice President Al Gore and Mr. Bush, then the governor of Texas, would go.

Mr. Bush, though, has made himself increasingly scarce as Election Day approaches. His campaign season effectively ended on Oct. 21 — two weeks before the election — when he attended his last political fund-raiser, a $1 million event for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. (His wife, Laura, is still on the stump; on Thursday she headlined a get-out-the-vote rally in Mississippi.)

With Mr. Bush’s job approval ratings at historic lows, political analysts have long said Republican candidates simply do not want to be seen with him. But now, with the election just days away, it seems that Republican candidates do not want Mr. Bush to be seen, period.

“One of McCain’s biggest challenges has been how to deal with Bush, and he never quite got it right,” said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. “Now, the best thing is silence.”