Where is President Bush? Not in Vermont

Some place had to be last -- the 50th state a president visits.

With Bill Clinton, it was Nebraska. With George W. Bush it will be Vermont -- if he gets there this autumn, or anytime before Jan. 20. It is the only state in which he has not set foot since taking office.

Not surprising.

Presidents visit states that are loyal to them, to be sure, but they generally spend the most time in states that are up for grabs. As president, Bush has made more than 150 visits to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

Vermont? Not yet.

Could it have something to do with the small number of voters? Or the low likelihood of drawing a big crowd in a state that is not host to major conventions? Or the fact that it was where former Gov. Howard Dean launched his campaign to deny Bush reelection in 2004? Maybe.

Or perhaps the 2004 election results are to blame? (John Kerry: 183,621. George W. Bush: 120,710.)

We think it's maybe the sense among many there that he is persona non grata. And the theoretical threat of arrest.

Indeed, the towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro voted in March to instruct police to arrest Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution." Now, that would be a reason to avoid the state.

For the moment, the president is just communicating with Vermonters in writing. The risk of POTUS and Big Time doing time notwithstanding, he issued a statement Friday declaring the state eligible for disaster aid to help clean up from storms, a tornado and flooding that struck last month.

In any case, Ken Herman of the Cox Newspapers' Washington bureau, one of our favorite print-born videographers and whose work has appeared here on an earlier occasion, took his minicam to the Green Mountain State and explored just what might happen if President Bush did show up.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Adam Pike Riesner / Associated Press

Note: We earlier referred to Vermont as the Granite State; we thank the eagle-eyed readers who corrected us.

Comments

[Floyd]

New Hampshire is the Granite State! Geez!

Bush should be tried at the Hague for war crimes and then imprisoned for life along with his uber right hand man Cheney.

[Susan Misnick]

Granite State is New Hampshire; Vermont is the Green Mountain State.

Nice artical. Just an FYI: Vermont is the Green Mountain State, instead of the Granite State.

[Henry Fuhrmann]

Re. Vermont's nickname: Thanks to all of you from the copy desk for catching our error.