Posted by Mark Silva at 6:05 am CDT and updated at 9 am CDT
SALT LAKE CITY -- They don't call this a Red State for no reason.
When President Bush landed here last night, preparing to address the American Legion's convention today with the first in a three-week series of speeches about the "global war on terror'' timed for the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, local leaders had assembled 2,000 people on the tarmac for a screaming, rock-star's welcome for the president, who agreed to address the adoring crowd. Of course, this served mainly as an antidote to an even larger anti-war rally that the mayor organized here.
"These are challenging times,'' said the president, who had insisted on this day that a political motive should not be read into his speech here about the war -- but don't tell that to the 2,000 people who were given tickets to attend this nighttime welcoming rally.
"I wish I could report to you that all is well,'' the president told the cheering crowd, "But there's still an enemy that wants to harm the United States of America because of what we stand for. We learned that lesson earlier this month, when because of the good work of our friends in Great Britain, and some of our own help, we stopped a terrorist plot against the United States. This is the challenge of our time, and my most important duty. And the most important duty of our government is to protect the American people from further attack.''
According to Rep. Rob Bishop (R, Ut.), the event was arranged on short notice as a counter-greeting to Bush after the local mayor had war protestor Cindy Sheehan to come protest the president's speech. Several counter-demonstrations had been planned, Bishop explained, but organizers and the White House decided they would rather have a single, big "non-partisan" welcome.
Rocky Anderson, the outspoken mayor of Salt Lake City, had organized an even larger anti-war rally on the steps of City Hall during the day, with the mayor stirring the crowd with a firebreathing speech on not only the war but also the president. Anderson described Bush as a "dishonest, war-mongering, human rights-violating president'' at a rally that led to a march to the local federal building.
The state's two senators and three congressman - one of whom is a Democrat - greeted the president on arrival here. The White House and governor's office had received numerous calls asking if there was going to be anything open to the public during the president's visit here, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino, and it was decided that this was the best way to accomodate as many people as possible.
Tickets were distributed through the governor's office and the congressional delegation. The president decided to speak to the crowd en route to the city aboard Air Force One.
The welcome, staged at 9:04 pm Mountain time, had the feel of a rock concert. The president stood at the top of the stairs of the presidential aircraft waving for a few moments before descending to speak at a microphone stand on a raised platform in front of the crowd, with Air Force One behind him. People in the crowd toted signs reading, "Utah Supports President Bush," and "We Love You President Bush."
The president worked a rope line for several minutes before moving on to The Grand America Hotel, a truly grand hotel -- not to be confused with the Little America hotel across the street -- at the foot of the mountains here. The flashing marquee on a Super 8 Motel on the way to the hotel beamed: "God Bless President Bush and Veterans." Bush will address the American Legion this morning.
In the meantime, this is what the president had to say to his welcoming committee of 2,000, with the notations of applause provided by the official White House transcript-keepers:
"Thank you all for coming out. (Applause) I can't thank you enough for this fantastic Utah welcome. I am delighted to be here in Salt Lake City. (Applause.) My only regret is that Laura is not here to see this great crowd. (Applause.) She sends her best, she sends her love.
"I want to thank the governor for being here today. Governor, thank you for coming. I want to thank your two fine United States senators, Senator Hatch and Bennett for joining us. (Applause.) I thank Congressmen Matheson, Bishop and Cannon for being here, as well. I want to thank you all for coming.
"Most of all, I want to thank you all for staying up a little past your bedtime, for some of you, to greet me. (Applause.)
"I'm looking forward to talking tomorrow to our veterans. (Applause.) I'm going to tell the veterans how much America appreciates their service to the United States of America. (Applause.) And I'm going to thank our veterans for setting such a great example for incredibly fine men and women who wear the uniform of the United States military today. (Applause.)
"These are challenging times. I wish I could report to you that all is well. But there's still an enemy that wants to harm the United States of America because of what we stand for. We learned that lesson earlier this month, when because of the good work of our friends in Great Britain, and some of our own help, we stopped a terrorist plot against the United States. This is the challenge of our time, and my most important duty. And the most important duty of our government is to protect the American people from further attack. (Applause.)
"We will stay on the offense and defeat the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. (Applause.) And as we do so, we'll remember the power of freedom and liberty to transform regions of hate to regions of compassion. I believe there's an Almighty, and I believe the great gift of the Almighty to every man and woman on the Earth is the desire to live in freedom. (Applause.)
"Iraq is the central front in this war on terror. If we leave the streets of Baghdad before the job is done, we will have to face the terrorists in our own cities. We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed, and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of the 21st century. (Applause.)
"I firmly believe we'll succeed. We'll succeed in spreading liberty. And as we do so, we can say that this generation did our duty and laid the foundation of peace for generations to come. (Applause.)
"For those of you with loved ones in the United States military, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Applause.) I can't tell you how proud I am to be the Commander-in-Chief of such a fantastic group of young men and women. (Applause.) And I'll make this pledge to you: Our government will make sure your loved ones have all the support, all the help, all the training necessary to do their job of defending freedom, defending America, and spreading liberty that will yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
"So I want to thank you all for coming. It warms my heart to see such a huge crowd. May God bless the great state of Utah, and may God bless America. Thank you all very much.'' (Applause.)
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Comments
It just kills me that Mr. Bush can continually get
away with this "war on terror". Yes JohnD, I do know know that terrorists..Oh excuse me...Islamic fascists do exist. Please don't show your narrow mindedness and say we don't,it's just plain stupid to say. How can we go from WMD's, to Regime change, to the war on terror, to the islamic radicals, before people catch on to the fact we screwed the pooch. Four years ago if we asked you, where are the islamic radicals, it would not have been Iraq. The people who flew the planes were not from Iraq. There was no connection between 9/11 and Iraq. Saddam would never have allowed anyone to challenge his authority. Now we have much greater threats in the region and we are powerless to do anything. Yes we know there are people who want to hurt us Mr. Bush, but this war is not helping.
Even if we democratize Iraq..Islamic radicals will just be somewhere else. They know that this movement changes and adapts so what is the goal?
Wouldn't it be better to admit we made a mistake than to keep "staying the course" when this will not bring the results you desire?
Posted by: bill r. | August 31, 2006 8:28 AM
We await the time when, referring to a Democrat's visit to CT or some northeastern Liberal state, the reporter dismissively opines "they don't call this a blue state for no reason". And at the least, we should expect that a reporter avoid the grammatically incorrect double negative in his sentences.
Posted by: Bruce | August 31, 2006 8:59 AM
This is just another campaign stop and feel good for Bush at taxpayer expense.
With Bush only having a 50+ rating in this state and Idaho,I'm surprised he doesn't visit more often.
Will all the Republicans who just complained about the Obama trip and cost,offer their perspective on Bush, who has made countless campaign trips over the last 15 months to raise 166 million for Republican candidates.
I'm sure your as cost conscience on his trips as you are on Obama's.
While you're at it,please feel free to comment on the following.
Sens.Tom Coburn,R-Okla and Barrack Obama,D-Ill,introduced legislation that would create a searchable database of govt.contracts,grants,insurance,loans and financial assistance,worth $2.5 trillion last year.
The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.
The measure had been unanimously passed by voice last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Govt.Affairs Com.It was on a fast track for floor action until an un-named Senator put a hold on it.GUESS WHO?
Also,sounds like a great piece of legislation for a do nothing Senator like Obama to be attached to.
Comments please.
Posted by: Raving Loon | August 31, 2006 10:38 AM
Hey Loon, Ted Stevens locked that bill up in one of his tubes. I'm sure it'll see floor action. It's too good of a bill not to. Kudos to Obama and Coburn for authoring it. I suspect, though, when it finally does get a floor vote, though, we'll see a weird coalition of republicrat senators - all the ones who shovel pork back to their districts (Stevens, Byrd, etc.) - to make a concerted effort to defeat it. They'll say that it impedes the legislature's ability to effectively repair roads or some other such hogwash.
It doesn't seem to me like the little rally Bush had at the airport was any kind of a campaign stop. From what Silva wrote Rocky and Cindy Sheahan planned a protest march and it turned out that more citizens wanted to demonstrate by supporting the war on terror than marching with Rocky and Cindy. Bush was just accomodating an invitation.
Posted by: bill | August 31, 2006 10:49 AM
Nothing new here move on.He needs a new speech writer.
Posted by: Dale Peters | August 31, 2006 10:58 AM
Bill,and how about the taxpayer cost for the Bush campaign trips.
I know you were very concerned about the cost of Obama's trip.
I'll assume the Bush trips have cost taxpayers in the 100's of millions,yet I haven't seen any Dems complain.Interesting.
Posted by: Raving Loon | August 31, 2006 11:00 AM
Bruce,
Don't worry, there should be lots more blue districts real soon.
Thanks for your usual level of insight.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | August 31, 2006 11:05 AM
The rhetoric seen from Rumsfeld and Bush this week
is part of a campaign to to wed the issues of Iraq and terrorism. The voters see these as two very seperate issues - a problem for the Republicans as well as the Democrats for each can claim only one issue as a strength.
The second prong of the blitz is much more insidious in nature.
In the absence of any effective policy in Iraq to shore up support among the disenchanted and retain the highly coveted position of power, the administration has resorted to using the most abominable and desperate tactic available to accomplish this goal - portray the majority of the citizens in this country that wish to see an effective all-encompassing strategy to battle terrorism put in place - as an extremist, fringe minortity that are unpatriotic, un-American, and desirous of seeing their fellow countrymen killed at the hands of terrorists.
At a time when the country should be united in
purpose and resolve, the administration has
deemed it more important to fracture and divide
its citizenry for political gain.
This divisive, subversive, and destructive smear campaign directed at the American public will ultimately do more harm to the peace and tranquility of our nation than any terroist act.
Posted by: johnf | August 31, 2006 12:47 PM
bill r....point well taken with regards to your statement, "even if we democratize Iraq, Islamic radicals will just be somewhere else."
Let them go somewhere else! Iraq may be sitting on roughly 1/4 of all the worlds oil according to Taha Hmud Moussa. When, not if, Iraq becomes a true democratic nation and can defend her-self the U.S. will have a good trading partner and an ally.....oh, and don't forget another military base sorely needed in that part of the world.
When we bring Iraq into the twenty first century and away from "absolutre power" leaders the world will see our presidents vision was right on, because they will also enjoy in the the fruits of Iraq's democracy...
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | August 31, 2006 1:09 PM
I don't have a problem with campaign travel, per se, the only thing about Obama's trip is it's campaign travel disguised as diplomacy with a fawning media horde brought along for photo ops. Very little diplomacy is getting done and it's all just being done to make Obama look good. If you don't think that's true then maybe we should ask why there weren't daily reports on Obama's trip to Russia or some other senator's recent trips. Yes diplomacy is necessary and good. But this isn't diplomacy. It's boot licking.
I see that at least the raving loon isn't willing to let the "hooray for my side, your side stinks" arguments go.
Posted by: Bill | August 31, 2006 1:14 PM
Things are getting pretty desperate when the GOP swiftboat machine is hoping that Dubya is going to give them a lift.
W. wakes up every morning,and has a wrestling match with the english language,and loses. Now the fat cat conservatives are looking to him to lead the way out of the fine mess that HE got them into ,in the first place.
See ya GOP.
Posted by: John E. | August 31, 2006 1:16 PM
Paulo..Thank you for your view point and thank you for your civility in your response. I can see your view, I may not totally agree, but I see we can exchange good ideas. Thanks!
Posted by: bill r. | August 31, 2006 3:10 PM
Paulo,
The probability of Iraq becoming anything that resembles a democractic nation diminishes every day. Civilian Iraqi deaths are higher now than they were at the start of this mess. How many more years will go by that we are told we are training Iraqi soldiers to defend themselves. Japan recently pulled their peace keeping forces out of northern Iraq a day after British forces said they were turning their security over to the Iraqis. And somehow you see democracy in action. At best, we can only hope to contain Iraq enough to become split into two or three sects run by religious zealots that keep their fighting at their own borders. At worst, this all spills over to Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine etc. Then the world will see the lack of vision from this president. This war was under-funded, under-armed and terribly planned. All the oil in the world will never fix this mess.
Posted by: Brian | August 31, 2006 3:54 PM
Paulo,
You have some incredibliy BAD and conflicting ideas there. And I must say, in all respect, that you speak of desires that has some catastrophic impact.
(1) "Let them go somewhere else! Iraq may be sitting on roughly 1/4 of all the worlds oil according to Taha Hmud Moussa."
- so are you admitting that this nation went to war for Iraq's strategic resources?
- are you ready to tell the families of the 2600+ U.S. dead that (1) they're dead to drive the Islamic militants "somewhere else" and (2) for control of Iraqi resources?
(2) "When, not if, Iraq becomes a true democratic nation and can defend her-self the U.S. will have a good trading partner and an ally.....oh, and don't forget another military base sorely needed in that part of the world."
- how are you so sure that Iraq will become a true democratic nation? Do you have some kind of crystal ball, some trend/progress report that we don't know about? Because it's the lives of our service people you're betting that on.
- how are you sure that the Iraqi govenment that survives will be an ally? Their prime minister supported Hezbollah's actions while he was in DC - surprising?
- 80% of the Iraqi people don't want permanenet U.S. presense in Iraq. Do you dispute that fact? If that's case, how are you going to have those military bases without the appearance that (1) the government is an U.S. puppet and (2) we're there for the control their natural resources? Oh, sorry, you already made it clear that we're there for that reason in your post... my bad. I guess we're really paying blood for oil.
(3) What will you do when (and I'm gong to say IF, because I'm just not as self-sure as you I guess) the new Shiite majority that's Iraq decides to align itself with Iran? What's your contingency plan there? "We won't need one, it won't happen, it'll be just as I predicted?"
I guess you didn't predict the bloodbath that's Iraq today either when you supported this invasion either. I don't expect you to have answers to any of these questions. The people you support doesn't, either.
Posted by: Jack | August 31, 2006 4:00 PM
bill r.....I only had one cup of coffee before I wrote that and you can see from the time I posted that Rush Limbaugh was only on for an hour....I was still calm.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | August 31, 2006 6:55 PM
Brian, Point well taken, but we all should have a positive view of this. It is not going to be easy....I agree! But do you think the people of Iraq will stand for this growing carnage?
Let's train their soldiers and get out when it's time, be patient with this process. We still have soldiers in many post World War two nations ....France,Germany,(my)Italy,Japan,S Korea...and all over. War isn't a death toll or a time element, it is what is. It's all about freedom, so we have the the ability to do what we do ....like this! Love our country Brian, It's GREAT...
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | August 31, 2006 11:59 PM
Raving loon...Great point! This is a great piece
of legislation that would hold accountable every
politician. I would have been proud if a senator
from my state had introduced such ground breaking
law. Senator Stevens R-Alaska has had more pork thrown on bills for his state than a pig-pickin on labor day. Where the outrage???
Posted by: bill r. | September 1, 2006 5:16 AM
Well, Bill R., to be fair it was blogs that sniffed out that Ted Stevens blocked the bill and one of them was a popular republican blog. They were also the first to suggest that this is payback for Coburn not supporting Stevens' "bridge to nowhere' pork project.
I think it's a great bill but I just wonder if powerful porkers like Stevens, Byrd et al will ever allow it to pass.
Posted by: Bill | September 1, 2006 7:47 AM
It's all about freedom, so we have the the ability to do what we do ....like this! Love our country Brian, It's GREAT...
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | Aug 31, 2006 11:59:01 PM
The assumption is Brian never loved his country?
This is exactly what I commented on in an earlier post.
"...portray the majority of the citizens in this country that wish to see an effective all-encompassing strategy to battle terrorism put in place - as an extremist, fringe minortity that are unpatriotic, un-American, and desirous of seeing their fellow countrymen killed at the hands of terrorists.
This divisive, subversive, and destructive smear campaign directed at the American public will ultimately do more harm to the peace and tranquility of our nation than any terroist act."
Posted by: johnf | Aug 31, 2006 12:47:47 PM
Posted by: johnf | September 1, 2006 1:16 PM