Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain's battles with George W. Bush date back to the 2000 presidential campaign. That's a political strength these days, says Republican strategist John Feehery. If Democrats are able to portray a McCain presidency as a third Bush term, it would be a ``disaster,'' Feehery said.

One drawback for McCain: On three major issues -- Iraq, the economy and health care -- he has embraced Bush's unpopular policies.

``Their positions are virtually indistinguishable,'' said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington research group. ``That makes him vulnerable to the charge that, `If you liked President George Bush, you will love President John McCain.'''

McCain's ties to Bush's policies may make it hard for the Arizona senator to attract independents in the general election, analysts say.

Mindful of his need to perform a balancing act, McCain, who clashed with Bush during their run for the party's nomination eight years ago, touts his differences with the president on such issues as global warming, stem-cell research and the use of torture against terror suspects.

Yet he has been Bush's staunchest supporter on Iraq, even though he criticized then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the war.

Last year, as public support for the conflict plummeted, McCain, 71, backed the deployment of 30,000 more U.S. troops, saying he would ``rather lose a political campaign than a war.''

`We're Succeeding'

Now, he's taking heat from Democrats such as Senator Barack Obama for saying he can foresee a U.S. military presence in Iraq for 50 years or more, under the same type of troop-deployment arrangements the U.S. has with South Korea.

``We're succeeding in Iraq,'' McCain said at a La Crosse, Wisconsin, town hall meeting this month, echoing the president's rhetoric. ``We will eliminate the casualties and we'll be able to withdraw American troops and get them out of harm's way.''

On the economy, Bush and McCain each endorsed a stimulus package amid growing calls for federal action to help avoid a recession.

McCain initially called for greater spending discipline and eliminating congressional pork-barrel projects -- a signature issue for him. Then, embroiled in primary elections in Michigan, South Carolina and Florida, he began supporting rebates to taxpayers, an idea Bush was already promoting.

No New Taxes

McCain opposed Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, though he now says he agrees with the president that they must be made permanent. He's also pledged to veto any tax increases and to cut the corporate rate to 25 percent from 35 percent.

For his part, Bush in his Jan. 28 State of the Union speech embraced McCain's crusade against congressional earmarks, the pet projects that lawmakers insert in spending bills. He vowed to veto any appropriations measures that fail to reduce by half the number and cost of those projects.

In the area of health care, McCain and Bush favor market- based approaches to make medical insurance more affordable, such as expanding the use of health-savings accounts.

McCain would give tax credits of $5,000 to families and $2,500 to individuals to help buy coverage. While Bush has proposed giving Americans tax deductions, he would also consider tax credits.

`Honored' by Bush

While McCain has said he would be ``honored'' to have Bush campaign for him ``under any circumstances,'' the senator's aides said such joint appearances will be limited.

``McCain has to stand on his own two feet,'' said Mark McKinnon, a senior adviser who also served as Bush's media strategist in 2000 and 2004.

Karl Rove, the architect of Bush's two White House campaigns, said a lower Bush profile would be ``a natural and normal thing.''

McCain does part company with Bush on some issues. These include his opposition to such interrogation techniques as water-boarding and his advocacy of mandatory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide. McCain has also vowed to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

`Respectful Distance'

``McCain's challenge is to avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater,'' said strategist Feehery, who's not aligned with any campaign. ``He can't have his campaign be portrayed as a third Bush term -- that'd be a disaster. So he needs to support the good Bush policies even as he keeps a respectful distance from the current administration.''

McCain's need to calibrate his relationship to Bush evokes memories of then-Vice President Al Gore's ambivalence toward Bill Clinton during the 2000 presidential campaign, during which Gore mostly sidelined his boss.

A key difference: Clinton was popular and his policies enjoyed wide public support.

A Bloomberg News poll conducted as Clinton was leaving office in January 2001 had his job approval at 64 percent. Bush's job-approval ratings hover just above 30 percent, and many of his policies are unpopular, starting with the Iraq war.

Voters say they think Democrats can do a better job than Bush in managing the war, by a margin of 46 percent to 34 percent, and the economy, by 51 percent to 29 percent, according to a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 26, 2008 00:06 EST