MSNBC reports that both George Bush and Dick Cheney have canceled their appearances at the Republican National Convention because of the likelihood that hurricane Gustav would be coming ashore on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans on Monday at around the same time they were scheduled to speak in St. Paul.

The White House is apparently terrified that news channels would televise Bush’s speech on a split screen with live footage of people stranded in flood waters, as evacuees were in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

The McCain campaign is undoubtedly relieved by the cancellations. While Bush and Cheney remain popular with the hardcore extremist base of the GOP, they are extremely unpopular with regular Americans, which means that featuring them the convention could dampen support for the GOP ticket among independent voters in November.