Bush’s Patriotic Schedule Crammed With Symbols : Presidency: He starts with Gulf War medals, pauses at Mt. Rushmore and aims at nation’s heartland today.

For a politician adept at the use of powerful symbols, President Bush has all he could want as the nation celebrates its 215th birthday.

On Wednesday, his backdrop was the great stone faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt chiseled into the granite of Mt. Rushmore. Today, his playing field is not one, but two Independence Day parades in the American heartland.

Indeed, there were so many patriotic events that Bush wanted to cram into his schedule today that he had to begin the celebration Wednesday, moving up by one day the formal dedication of the Mt. Rushmore memorial 50 years after the sculptures were completed. Today he will march, however briefly, with school children and bands down the main streets of Marshfield, Mo., and Grand Rapids, Mich., getting back to the White House in time to watch fireworks bursting over the Washington Monument tonight.

Four months ago, just after the Persian Gulf War ended, Bush said that this Fourth would be “a day of special celebration for our returning troops--a holiday they’ll never forget.”

Thus, Bush’s two-day Independence Day tour began with the presentation at the White House of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the five senior officials who played a central role in the Persian Gulf War: Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S.-led forces in the Gulf; Secretary of State James A. Baker III; Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Brent Scowcroft, the President’s national security adviser. Eight other officials were given the Presidential Citizens Medal.

But here, where the South Dakota prairie gives way to the pine-covered Black Hills, the war played no apparent role in the day’s celebration. Rather, the President’s appearance brought to mind another campaign--the political battles of 1988. In that election year, Bush wrapped the American flag around his presidential campaign the way the artist Christo might temporarily package a mountain in wrapping paper--but for Bush the packaging had a more lasting impact.

In 1988, Bush visited such sites as Flag City, U.S.A., in Ohio and the nation’s largest flag factory in New Jersey. But Wednesday’s visit here did not lack for patriotic symbolism. It included:

--Screaming flights of four A-7 jet fighters and a B-1 bomber.

--A 120-foot by 80-foot American flag, lifted aloft by helium-filled balloons behind the chiseled faces on Mt. Rushmore.

--Rosemary Clooney singing “America the Beautiful” and actor Jimmy Stewart introducing the President to 1,500 invited guests and 2,000 others who won tickets in a drawing.

Six television satellite trucks beamed the signals beyond the Badlands of southwestern South Dakota.

“This is history,” said Tom Griffith of the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Society.

But Bush had more immediate concerns than history: The likely battle in the Senate over the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, his nominee to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thus, the President managed, with barely a stretch, to link the stone faces--chiseled over a 14-year period by a team of nearly 400 workers under the direction of sculptor John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum--to the challenges of today.

“Each of these four presidents enriched this country. Each made full use of his presidential powers, without forgetting that he owed his power and legitimacy to the people,” Bush said.

“The heroes behind me were fighters--as Americans have always been: fighters for independence, for freedom, for democracy, for equality, for the values and lands we revere,” he said.

“We must teach our children that responsibility comes with freedom. We must remind them of the endless possibilities of the American dream,” Bush said. “Our new Supreme Court nominee, Judge Clarence Thomas, has said it best: ‘As a child, I could not dare dream that I would ever see the Supreme Court, not to mention be nominated to it . . . . Only in America could this be possible.’ ”

With that, the airplanes--led by four antique biplanes--soared above the unblinking stone faces. The flag, dependent not only on the balloons but on cooperating winds, rose against the blue of the South Dakota sky. The audience applauded.

And Bush headed off into the hills to hike and go fishing for a few hours.