Remember that time you went to the mall and you were just there to look for a couple of things when in the distance you saw coming toward you — though he had not seen you yet — that one guy you went out with once a long time ago. A date that started out awkwardly enough, but then just after ordering for you, this guy started telling you how he liked to wear large diapers and asked to call you "mommy"? Then, as you tried to rehinge your dropped jaw, he pulled out the baby powder and asked for your hand in spanking?

So you promptly ducked into Radio Shack and hid for several minutes.

What?

That’s right, you don’t have to remember because that guy has been President for 85 months!

And he won’t be going away soon enough, because he thinks you abruptly took off because you were just so powerfully attracted to him — and it was overwhelming.

So naturally, his endorsement, from his perspective, is the most important thing ever.

My attitude is, so long as they’re talking about me, we have a better chance of winning because our candidate will — what’s going to matter is not the past but the future when it comes to campaigns.

If the Democrat Party feels like they can win an election by focusing on me, I think they’d be making a huge tactical mistake. But I hope they do that then because our candidate will be able to talk about the future.

You would think the GOP nominee would run away as fast as they could from a statement like this — trying to avoid comment at all. But the McCain candidacy is such that it cannot quit him:

With Mr. McCain facing resistance from conservatives, Mr. Bush has also emerged as the man Republicans, including the McCain camp, are counting on to unite the party. One McCain adviser, Charlie Black, called Mr. Bush “a political asset” in an interview last week. Another, speaking anonymously to discuss strategy, said Mr. Bush needed to “put his arms around John McCain,” by figuratively linking himself with the senator in public comments.

Hmmmmm, seems familiar, but I can’t seem to scroll up and confirm why.

And the worst thing for McCain is this anonymous staffer is right in one sense, and as we all know, disastrously, hilariously wrong, in every other one.

The activist GOP Base for all their usual lack-of-logical reasons detests McCain and as the party elites and the beltway media try to foist him upon them they get angrier as they receive actual logical reasons. Just look at Washington State this weekend where the Party Chairman shut off the voting with more than 10 percent left to count in order to call it for McCain at the earliest possible opportunity — and avoid an even more embarrassing 0-for-Three weekend for the presumptive nominee.

We are heading to a convention, in Minneapolis, where as soon as the Larry Craig jokes die out McCain is going to have to devote an entire night of his convention to how much he loves Bush. He may even have to let the Chimperor have a night to speak, and save another night for Cheney. What’s more, I predict Bush will demand a night, maybe two, in which he discusses his awesomeness and berates the then 75 to 80% of the country that detests him. There may be shoe-on-podium violence. All to keep the base less angry while the rest of the country solidify against McCain.