President lauds McCain via satellite

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2008 | by Richard Wolf

ST. PAUL -- President Bush became the first president since Lyndon Johnson to skip his party's national convention Tuesday -- a weather-related absence that best served the interests of Bush and the man who wants his job.

The president delivered his speech a day late and 1,100 miles short of the Xcel Energy Center here. He appeared by satellite hookup from the White House, rather than in person. He spoke for eight minutes rather than the 15 planned for Monday, before Hurricane Gustav sent him to Texas instead of Minnesota.

Keeping the president in Washington was a "mutual decision" of the White House and the McCain campaign, said Dana Perino, Bush's press secretary. With one storm gone but others approaching the Gulf Coast, she said, "it's appropriate that the...