The Cap­i­tal Jour­nal reports:

High-rank­ing Repub­li­can offi­cials said Mon­day the pres­i­dent would most like­ly be in Kansas on Sunday.

“We would wel­come him with open arms,” said Jef­frey Black, cam­paign man­ag­er for U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R‑Kan. “What an amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to ral­ly Kansans together.”

Unfor­tu­nate­ly for Ryun, they’ll be ral­ly­ing behind Nan­cy Boy­da. Because the Pres­i­dent isn’t so pop­u­lar any more, even in Kansas.

Black said a vis­it by Bush, if it mate­ri­al­izes, would build momen­tum for the entire slate of GOP candidates.

“The Repub­li­cans are not wor­ried about Jim Ryun,” Black said.

No, I bet the Pres­i­dent is com­ing out to stump only for can­di­dates he isn’t wor­ried about. Yeah, that’s it. I bet he’s com­ing to a state where 57% of peo­ple dis­ap­prove of the job he’s doing, a state where a pop­u­lar Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nor is about to get re-elect­ed, where even $1.5 mil­lion dol­lars from a Wash­ing­ton PAC won’t save Phill Kline from Paul Mor­ri­son, because it just seems fun. That’s prob­a­bly why Dick Cheney came out to raise funds for Ryun.

This puts Nan­cy Boy­da in a great posi­tion. Nation­al polls show that vot­ers tend to see their vote as much as any­thing to be a vote against Pres­i­dent Bush. Which makes com­ments like this an easy way to remind vot­ers why they should­n’t vote for Jim Ryun:

Boy­da said appear­ances by Bush and Cheney meant Ryun was polit­i­cal­ly vulnerable.

“You’ve got three peas in a pod,” Boy­da said. “I’m pret­ty sure I’m not invited.”

Mean­while, I’m told that a new inter­nal poll shows Nan­cy Boy­da out­side the mar­gin above Jim Ryun. DCCC ads, an aggres­sive grass­roots strat­e­gy and endorse­ments by promi­nent vet­er­ans have all pushed her clos­er to vic­to­ry. Go vote, and help her fix Washington.