President Bush cancels travel today to track economy

09:51 PM PT, Sep 17 2008

There is nothing like a last-minute shift in a president's travel plan to signal crisis -- and to shout that a president is paying attention to the latest round of turmoil and trouble.

As of early this evening, President Bush was planning to head on Thursday to Huntsville, Ala., to tour a plant that turns garbage into energy, and to raise funds in Huntsville and later in Jupiter, Fla., for Republicans.

But shortly after 11 p.m., well ahead of the opening of U.S. financial markets and those in Europe, Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto made the sort of seemingly innocuous announcement that can send shivers through hordes of traders.

He said that rather than head out on his political mission, the president would remain in Washington "to continue to work with his economic advisors on the serious challenges confronting our financial markets."

Fratto added:

The health of our financial markets is critical to the nation's economy, and the president remains focused on taking action to stabilize and strengthen our markets and to restore investor confidence.

The spokesman said Vice President Dick Cheney would suit up and fill in for Bush at the Huntsville fundraiser, and possibly in Jupiter.

The late-night announcement was the second last-minute, dramatic turnabout in Bush's schedule in less than three weeks.

With just a day's notice, he dropped his plan to fly to Minnesota to address the Republican National Convention on Sept. 1. Instead, as Hurricane Gustav took aim at the Gulf Coast, the president flew south to check on preparations for the storm's attack.

The signal then was that the White House was paying attention to the battering the storm was about to deliver.

The signal today is that the White House is paying attention to a different sort of storm -- the hurricane battering the markets and the broader U.S. economy.

-- James Gerstenzang