Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- There is an invisible man in the 2008 election: the president of the United States.

Republican candidates have all but shunned him, save those who need him to help raise money. And to the extent any president can keep a low profile, George W. Bush is doing it.

Saddled with one of the lowest approval ratings in polling history, the president is still in demand to shake the party money tree, though almost all of that is done out of the public eye.

``Sadly, a highly visible presence by the president will hurt the party and hurt John McCain,'' Bush's former spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Republican candidates in close races compete for prominent politicians. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stumped with North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich campaigned with Ohio Representative Steve Chabot. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is booked for events every week through Election Day, while Bush's public political calendar has mostly been empty.

``The country is looking for change, and he's not the most popular president in recent times,'' said David Carney, political director for Bush's father, President George H. W. Bush.

Public Events

In 2000, Vice President Al Gore generally kept his distance from Bill Clinton while seeking to succeed him. The two-term incumbent was still in demand with other Democrats, holding 202 fundraisers during his last year in office and campaigning for House candidates in states such as New York, Missouri, and Arkansas, Clinton's former spokesman Jake Siewert said.

``Clinton spent an enormous amount of time on the campaign trail,'' Siewert said. ``There was a fair amount of demand for him to do public events.''

McCain didn't utter Bush's name during his Sept. 4 speech accepting the Republican nomination. Pairing the words ``George'' and ``Bush'' is seemingly so politically dangerous that the Arizona senator even referred to the elder Bush only as ``the 41st president.''

McCain, 72, isn't the only Republican politician keeping his distance. Of 11 governor's races this year, the president has campaigned just with the North Carolina Republican nominee, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, and he has appeared with only a handful of hopefuls for 435 U.S. House seats.

For candidates this year, being photographed with Bush gives ammunition to opponents seeking to shackle Republicans to the White House.

`Don't Want to Be Seen'

``They simply don't want to be seen with him,'' said Tad Devine, a strategist in presidential campaigns for Democrats Gore and John Kerry.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama released a television commercial earlier this month that, in 30 seconds, managed to show five different pictures of McCain with Bush.

White House political director Barry Jackson wouldn't provide details on Bush's political schedule leading up to the Nov. 4 election. Specifics about Bush's appearances aren't released until several days before an event, he said.

There are lots of places he's not likely to go, like the Hampton Roads region in southeast Virginia. ``We haven't even discussed it,'' said Corry Bliss, campaign manager for Virginia U.S. Representative Thelma Drake, when asked about a Bush visit. ``This campaign is about next year and the future.''

Nothing in the Works

Likewise, there's nothing in the works with Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. ``Senator Wicker is running his own race,'' campaign spokesman Ryan Annison said.

Bush did attend a fundraiser for Wicker this summer that brought in $1 million; the men, though, didn't appear together in public, Annison said.

The president, who toured the Beijing Olympics last month, spent more time in front of cameras with the U.S. women's beach volleyball team than he has lately with the Republican nominee.

McCain accepted Bush's endorsement in the White House Rose Garden on March 5, the day after sewing up the nomination. ``If he wants my pretty face standing by his side at one of these rallies, I'd be glad to show up,'' Bush said.

More than six months later, McCain hasn't taken up the offer. Their only other joint appearance was on May 27, for less than a minute, when they shook hands as Bush boarded Air Force One after a Phoenix fundraiser.

Only 25 percent of Americans surveyed in a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll last month approved of Bush's job performance, barely topping Richard Nixon's 24 percent rating in a Gallup Poll the week before his August 1974 resignation over the Watergate scandal.

Rubbing Elbows

Still, Bush remains popular with Republicans, who will write contribution checks for the chance to rub elbows with the president at party fundraisers. Bush has so far brought in more than $138 million for the 2008 elections, compared with $194 million two years ago, the Republican National Committee said.

Only four of the 38 fundraisers Bush has attended this year were open to press coverage, however, compared with more than half of the 74 events in 2006, according to a tally kept by CBS News's Mark Knoller.

Bush, 62, stayed away from the Republican National Convention to monitor the response to Hurricane Gustav as it struck the Gulf Coast. The president gave an eight-minute speech via satellite during a convention segment that wasn't scheduled for live network television coverage.

His absence was a source of relief for the McCain camp. Asked whether the nominee would be appearing with President Bush this fall, McCain's campaign chief Rick Davis gave an emphatic no, saying ``we've turned that page.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Catherine Dodge in Washington, at cdodge1@bloomberg.net; Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 17, 2008 00:01 EDT