Bush endorsement no help to Ohio teen

WASHINGTON – President Bush’s coattails evidently do not extend to Wheelersburg High School in southwestern Ohio. Bush visited the area for a Sept. 10 rally and took a question from Dillon MacDonald, 14. “I’m running for student president of my freshman class, and I was wondering if I could have your support,” Dillon said to laughter from the crowd.

“Man, you’re heading in the right direction,” Bush replied. “I assure you, when I was 14, I couldn’t have stood up in front of all these cameras. Yes, you can have my support.” Bush promised he’d be “watching the (Wheelersburg) election like a hawk.”

Alas, the endorsement proved insufficient: Days later, Dillon lost the class election to a girl in a three-person race. “It didn’t quite put him over the hump,” Principal Mark Knapp said of the presidential assist.

Is this a bad sign for Bush in the crucial state of Ohio? “I would hesitate to make any kind of prediction,” Knapp said.