First Lady Makes First Mission to California

The taupe car rounded the corner of Maclay Avenue in San Fernando on Thursday morning and First Lady Laura Bush got an eyeful of the admirers who lined the sidewalks, their signs of support bobbing aloft.

But not for her.

The adoring crowd had turned out for Vicente Fox, whose first official trip to the United States as Mexico’s president seemed to be briefly overshadowing Bush’s first official trip outside of Washington as first lady.

The inaugural visit by any Bush emissary to California since the election was a mission behind enemy lines. The first lady launched her education campaign in a state that Al Gore won in a romp, that has seen two school shootings in two weeks and remains threatened by rolling blackouts that the Bush White House has declined to do much about.

But Bush, a woman who has never claimed to crave the political spotlight, managed in the first day of a two-day visit to avoid the attending political fray. Fox didn’t steal her thunder, she gave it to him--inviting him to join her at Morningside Elementary, where the student body is 98% Latino.

She acknowledged with polite curiosity the small bands of demonstrators who chanted that her husband stole the election, employing the same unruffled tone she used to admire birds of paradise blooming along the roadway. “‘Oh look, there are some protesters. . . . “

“I’m coming to California to talk about an issue that is not political--recruiting teachers and making sure that very young children get all the pre-reading and vocabulary skills they can get,” Bush said in an interview en route to the elementary school where test scores have made great leaps.

She briefly addressed the state’s energy crisis, but only when asked. “The president and I are both very concerned about the people of California, and what these blackouts mean for the lifestyle and what they mean for the economy. . . . It’s going to require a lot of people working together and facing the hard facts that we don’ have a [sufficient] supply.”

Steering clear of policy statements, she talked more freely about the subjects that she is most comfortable with: her first two months in the White House, her children and her crusade to improve education.

She misses just being able to go outside for a walk, but relishes dipping into the warehouse of historic furniture stored away after use by first families past. (A Victorian settee used by President Ulysses S. Grant is in Bush’s upstairs office and a desk bought by Jackie Kennedy is in the residence.)

Her twin daughters--Jenna and Barbara, freshmen at different colleges--have yet to settle into White House bedrooms being redecorated for their use. (They haven’t been back since the inauguration.)

And Bush reasserted her request that the media honor their private lives in the tradition of Chelsea Clinton’s (a recent tabloid cover photograph of Jenna with a cigarette notwithstanding).

“They are older, but they are still private citizens. They didn’t run for office. We never used them in the campaign purposely because we wanted them to have the opportunity to have a private life. That’s what they want and that’s what we want for them.”

Her two-day tour takes her today to San Diego, where she plans to encourage military retirees to become teachers.

While she shared the stage Thursday with Fox and Gov. Gray Davis, Bush, a former librarian, seemed most at home surrounded by second-graders at Morningside.

Sitting in a wooden chair in a freshly vacuumed library, she read “Officer Buckle and Gloria,” reciting many of the words without looking, and driving home invaluable safety rules such as “always tie your shoes” and “never eat raw hamburger.”

Afterward, she posed for pictures and got rave reviews.

“She was cute,” said a girl named Johana.

“She was very proud of us,” said another named Kathlyn, who, when asked if she knew who Bush was, replied confidently: “Yes, she is the first lady of all the ladies.”

From there it was off to Occidental College to discuss teacher recruitment with faculty and students, where outside not all the reviews were grand.

“For Bush to send her out here took a lot of chutzpah. You know he didn’t set foot here after saying let them eat cake on the energy crisis,” fumed Jamie Murray of Los Angeles, holding a big banner that screamed “‘America Rejects Bush.”

Across the way stood two loyal foot soldiers who traveled from the South Bay to support Laura Bush.

“It’s very appropriate that she stay involved in education. We don’t need another Hillary,” said Jessamine Campbell of Redondo Beach, holding a Bush-Cheney sign and asserting there was something tacky about protesting a first lady.

“It’s kind of a low blow,” Campbell said. “No respect.”

It was clear from the small but tenacious group that California is a land divided. Alas, they failed to assemble before the motorcade passed, and Bush never saw them.