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.
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.
It is her signature event, a contribution to the nation's capital likely to last longer and have more impact than most of the official proclamations that have come out of the West Wing during her husband's or anyone's presidency.
On Saturday, First Lady Laura Bush, a former teacher and librarian, will host her final National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington. This year's all-day event features children's author R.L. Stine, who wrote the "Goosebumps" series; Philippa Gregory, author of "The Other Boleyn Girl;" and Alexander McCall Smith, author of the best-selling series "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency."
Oh yes, book lovers can also meet writers Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna, who co-authored a children's adventure book called "Read All About It!"
Mrs. Bush, dubbed the "reader in chief," brought the idea with her from Texas, where she inaugurated the state's festival 14 years ago. In Washington, the first book celebration took place three days before 9/11. Some 30,000 came that year, when the event was at the Library of Congress. Last year, long since moved to the larger National Mall, the festival attracted 120,000.
Seen here addressing a White House symposium on global literacy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last Monday, the first lady said she plans to continue promoting literacy around the world after the Bushes leave the White House. She said she will co-chair the U.N. Literacy Decade to help empower the estimated 770 million adults around the world who can't read.
I love the whole idea of the National Mall being turned over to literature for a Saturday a year. It still has that feeling of a lot of book lovers together, people who love to read and who love books.
Conceding that in the future, electronic reading devices may play a larger role in the world of literature, Mrs. Bush disclosed that her mother-in-law, former First Lady Barbara Bush, has already started reading "from a little hand-held screen that she can download books on."
But she added that for those who have a romantic feeling about the feel of ink on paper, "there will always be a place for the book."
First Lady Laura Bush once defended Michelle Obama, saying critics were taking her words out of context when the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate said she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.
You know, that's not been her role. But I think she is a very quick study, and fortunately John McCain does have that sort of experience.
Asked if she thought Palin's resume included sufficient foreign policy experience, Bush said, "Of course she doesn't have that."
But the first lady emphasized that she has "a lot of confidence" in Palin, who is in New York this week for a round of first-ever meetings with world leaders.
"She's got a lot of really good common sense, and I think that's very important," Bush said from New York, where she is seen above promoting global literacy at a conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "She also has executive experience from being a governor and a mayor, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to vote for Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket."
Asked if she thinks Palin is being treated unfairly because of her gender, the first lady said, "I do think there's a little bit of that going on, and I think it's to be expected."
George W. Bush was supposed to stop in Topeka, Kan., on Tuesday for a fundraiser to help congressional candidate Lynn Jenkins in her effort to unseat Topeka Democrat Nancy Boyda.
In the time-honored manner, invitations to the closed-door event at a private home requested contributions of anywhere from $500 (gets you in the door) to $7,500 (gets you a picture with POTUS).
But now Bush has canceled the date so that he can travel to Texas to inspect damage from Hurricane Ike, part of the White House effort to help John McCain by demonstrating that Republicans have learned their lesson from the flawed federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
He's sending First Lady Laura Bush instead. Which is probably better. She's usually about 20 points ahead of the president in approval ratings anyway
“President Bush has canceled his planned visit to Kansas tomorrow in order to comfort victims and lead the relief effort," she told the Lawrence, Kan., Journal-World. "He’ll have my full support, and I'll work in Congress to swiftly provide whatever relief is needed.”
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pretty disparaging of Democrat Barack Obama's record as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin said sarcastically that she figured being mayor of her small town of Wasilla in Alaska was "kind of like being a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."
Now comes First Lady Laura Bush to praise someone who, well, sounds a lot like a community organizer.
In an interview tonight with National Public Radio's All Things Considered, the first lady, who is participating in tomorrow's Service Nation Summit in New York City, told NPR's Robert Siegal that national service "doesn't have to be a government-sponsored" program.
And Mrs. Bush singled out for praise a community-based program, Ceasefire Chicago, started by a public health doctor who realized that violence in inner cities is a public health problem. So he set up a program to work with gang members.
Siegal: But is he working with people who could qualify as being called community organizers?
Mrs. Bush: I don't know if that's exactly what you would call them. I don't know exactly what that is. But I will say he gives former gang members jobs to try to intervene to prevent young people from ruining the rest of their lives because some reason that they'd get into a fight and then end up incarcerated.
Palin returned to a Welcome Home rally Wednesday night for the first time since being tapped as Republican John McCain's running mate. She was greeted by throngs of supporters and these three youngsters -- Olivia Schellekens, 9, Alexis Shipman, 9, and Kessa Sabedra, 8 -- all of Fairbanks, who came out to endorse Obama -- and community organizers.
An enterprising Realtor in Midland, Texas, has come up with a new way to advertise a listing in West Texas.
She's letting prospective customers know that the property for sale was the first home of Laura and George Bush, where the couple started their married life together. Listed for $239,900, the home at 1405 W. Golf Course Road has 2,406 square feet and was built in 1976, one year before the Bushes moved in.
With light airy spaces and a mostly concrete back patio ("low maintenance yard" is how Realtor Ruth Young puts it), the home is where the couple had their daughters (1981) and the future president ran for Congress, and lost, in 1978 (see photo above). It still boasts Laura Bush's original drapes, and offers buyers a chance to cook on Laura Bush's original cooktop stove.
You can't really tell a property by its descriptions. So here's the 360 visual tour.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: George Bush Presidential Library; Credit: Associated Press
Laura Bush is known as a schoolteacher, who often reads to children in classrooms.
She's known as a librarian, who founded book festivals both when was the governor's wife in Texas and when she was the president's wife in Washington.
And she's known as a kind, literate person whose popularity ratings generally track about 20 points ahead of her husband's.
But today, touring state delegations at the National Republican Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the first lady sounded a lot like one of those talking heads on television who are always handicapping the political horse race.
In a surprise appearance before the Michigan delegation at the Northland Inn, Mrs. Bush declared that Michigan would be the Ohio of the 2008 election. It is widely assumed that Ohio helped put George W. Bush back in the White House after the 2004 election. She forecast the same fate for Michigan this year.
I want you to realize that. I want you to feel the pressure of it and go back home and work really hard, because Michigan can be the Ohio of this time -- you know Michigan can be a state that carries the ticket for us and carries the election for us.
Then it was off to an appearance before the delegation from Colorado, considered a battleground state in this election. There she pitched Arizona Sen. John McCain as a westerner who understands Colorado. She said:
I think John McCain can win Colorado. He's a westerner. He's a neighbor of your state.... We can't take Colorado for granted. And so I want to encourage you all to go back home and sign up everybody you know and encourage them to vote for John.
First Lady Laura Bush, the wife of a Republican governor who became a Republican president, has voted for Republican men for a very long time.
But now that John McCain has selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Laura Bush said she was "very thrilled" to finally be voting for a Republican woman.
In an interview on CNN, the first lady said Palin had some valuable experience -- as a former mayor and as a mother -- that the other major party candidates for president or vice president lacked:
I think she has a lot of experience that none of the other three people who are on either ticket have, and that is she has the experience of being a mayor, which I think is very important. I think mayors across the country will tell you that running the city or running the town is a totally different experience from any other kind of government. Your constituents are right there....
She's the mother of five kids. She's doing that while she's worked. She was pregnant when I was last with her at the National Governors Assn., and since had that baby. I just have a lot of admiration for her. And I think she brings a judgment and a common sense to this that is just terrific.
And in an interview on Fox News, Laura Bush warned the media and Democrats not to show a sexist attitude toward Palin. "The other side will have to be particularly careful because that's something we all looked at," she said.
Asked whether she thought Palin might face sexism, as Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters say the New York senator did, Bush said, "I think that's a possibility."
Mostly, she was giddy. "I'm going to get what I wanted, which is to be able to vote for a Republican woman," she said on Fox. "People, as they get to know her, are going to be so impressed with her grit and her sensible judgment."
Later, at an appearance with Cindy McCain before the Louisiana delegation, Laura Bush again noted that the last time she saw Palin the governor was pregnant with her fifth baby. "Every woman in this room knows that she is really a superwoman -- that she is a mother and a governor."
Few noticed her inclusion today when the Republican National Convention announced its speaking lineup. Pundits immediately seized on news that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democrats' 2000 vice presidential candidate, will speak for his friend, Republican John McCain. Liberals were furious, vowing to strip him of his committee slots. Conservatives were furious too, noting that Lieberman is pro-abortion. Can anyone say secretary of state in a McCain administration?
Until recently, first ladies were seen but not heard at conventions. That tradition was broken in 1944 when Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the Democratic convention. Then in 1984, Nancy Reagan delivered a glowing tribute to her husband. Ever since, spouses have had their own slot. And for good reason. Usually they're more popular than the office holders. Enter Laura.
Of course another former first lady, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will have a prime-time Tuesday night perch at the Democratic convention.* (An earlier version of this post said Clinton would speak Wednesday night.)
For a long time now, polls have not been friendly to President George "30%" Bush. He professes to pay them no heed. But just in case he's bored over there in Beijing and is checking out Countdown to Crawford, we present some poll news that might give him some (very) temporary cheer:
On the energy front, an ABC News survey found what the Washington Post characterized as "broad public support for government action." That could translate into new pressure on Congress to push ahead with loosening of restrictions on offshore drilling. The survey found that 63% favor an end to the embargo on new drilling in U.S. coastal waters, the Post reported.
On the other hand, the poll found even stronger support for tougher fuel efficiency standards, an area that has not drawn the same degree of presidential attention, to put it mildly.
But the president may not want to plunge too deeply into the polls.
A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation looked into the question of how New Orleans residents feel they have been treated by Washington nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
It found that 60% thought that rebuilding New Orleans was "not a priority" of the president and Congress, and that although 59% said their lives were "almost back to normal" or "largely back to normal," there were still 41% who said their lives were "still very disrupted" or "still somewhat disrupted."
On second thought, rather than reading the blogs, maybe the president would prefer to keep his focus on the Olympics. (In the photo at top, Bush takes in the U.S.-China basketball game with his wife, his father and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.)
James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman are reporters in The Times' Washington bureau. Between the two of them, they have covered the White House, diplomacy, military affairs, the environment, international economics, trade and Congress. They have both spent time in Crawford, Texas.
