Interesting observation about the campaigning

So it made the news recently that both Presidents Carter and Clinton were out stumping for Kerry. I thought that was pretty cool and the fact that Carter was out there to give him his support at the DNC is great. I was too young to really understand Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. He was the President with the weird family. A southern mama who lived in the White House with him and a hillbilly brother (Billy). But he's done so much in the last 25 years since he's left office. Healing a deeply wounded country (after Watergate and the resignation of Nixon) was a thankless task that no one relished. His resume as a peacemaker since his Presidency is more impressive than his record as President. I don't think he's actively on the road campaigning since his Carter Center is a non-partisan agency and, because they're often called to monitor the voting process in many emerging democracies, they can't get involved in partisan politics. I wasn't a huge fan of Clinton but that doesn't mean he isn't a popular ex-President and Kerry gets popualrity points when they're together.

Anyway, it occurs to me that I haven't seen any ex-Presidents campaigning for Bush. Granted, I don't think President Ford travels much any more due to his age (he's 91). But there's another Republican ex-President out there who I haven't heard a peep from in connection to the campaign. It just happens that that person is the current President's father. Is it just me, or is it a little odd that Sr. isn't out there stumping for Jr.? I mean, he wasn't the greatest President in history or anything but he was the President for four years and he was the Vice-President for one of the post popular Presidents in history, Ronald Reagan. It doesn't seem like it's health-related, as he looked fine when he spoke at President Reagan's funeral earlier this summer. (He's "only" 80) so I can't figure out why I haven't seen any coverage of this. Kinda seems odd to me. I did a Google search for "George Bush" and "campaigning for his son", which I thought would be a pretty common phrase in the news and found only 31 hits, none of which pertain to the 2004 election. They're all from the 2000 election. Sr. did speak at the RNC in Philly, I'll admit. But that's all I could find.

I'll let my readers draw their own conclusions, since you're both pretty bright folks.