Unlike her husband, Laura Bush makes it to all 50 states

First lady Laura Bush visited North Dakota Thursday.

Ordinarily that would not be worthy of note. Except that during eight years President Bush has been in office, Laura Bush has been to almost every state in the Union. As of Thursday, she's been to all of them.

On her arrival at the airport, the Bismarck High School played welcome music as children in red, white and blue sailor hats greeted her with signs that said, "Welcome to North Dakota" and "Your 50th state, the best for last."

She visited the 124-year-old Sims Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church, where the congregation got money for a restoration project through the "Save America's Treasures" program, one of the first lady's projects.

And she visited Bismarck's Riverside Elementary School, where officials have secured some artwork for school walls thanks to "Picturing America" funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, another program the first lady promotes.

At the end of the day, she agreed with the students. "Clearly, I saved the best for last," she said.

President Bush is unlikely to match her record for one reason: The only state he has not visited during his years in office is Vermont. With one senator who's a liberal (Patrick Leahy) and one who's a socialist (Bernie Sanders), Bush is not likely to get a warm reception.

Plus as Countdown to Crawford recently noted, 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" should they ever show up.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Mike McCleary / Associated Press