Bush on Southern Whirl

A day after announcing a new space initiative, President Bush focused on more earthly concerns Thursday, picking up $2.3 million for his reelection campaign while courting African American voters in the Deep South.

Promoting his faith-based initiative at the Union Bethel AME Church here, Bush touted his proposal in uncharacteristically personal terms, telling his audience in a soft, conversational tone: “Many of the problems that are facing our society are problems of the heart. Addiction is the problem of the heart. I know....I was a drinker. I quit drinking because I changed my heart.”

As many in the predominantly black audience murmured their approval, Bush quipped: “I guess I was a one-man faith-based program.”

While Bush was warmly received at the church, his stop later in the day to place a wreath at the gravesite of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta sparked a much cooler reception. An estimated 700 protesters, deriding the president’s agenda as harmful to blacks, denounced his visit and the Iraq war. The president did not acknowledge the protesters.

In New Orleans, before addressing several hundred community activists at Union Bethel, Bush met with 19 area leaders, telling them: “I want to tell you this right off the bat: We’re not talking politics. We’re talking saving lives.”

He said his faith-based initiative was “based upon some personal experiences of mine and some practical application of public policy.... We all make decisions based upon our own life experiences. That was my life experience. I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t ask for Christ’s help in my heart.”

Both as a candidate in 2000 and as president, Bush has spoken about his onetime drinking problem, but rarely has he dwelt on it as he did Thursday. Bush, 57, has said he quit drinking after a particularly raucous 40th birthday party.

Bush’s faith-based initiative would allow religious organizations that provide social services to compete with secular agencies for public funding.

Although the proposal has stalled in Congress, Bush has issued a series of executive orders directing federal agencies to give such religious organizations “equal treatment” during grant-making considerations.

In his speech at Union Bethel, which feeds the homeless and offers an array of children’s programs, Bush urged the audience to lobby Congress for the initiative.

“This country must not fear the influence of faith in the future of this country. We must welcome faith,” he said. “Intractable problems, problems that seem impossible to solve, can be solved. There is the miracle of salvation -- that is real, that is tangible, that is available for all to see.”

Standing at the church’s pulpit, Bush adopted a near-reverential tone.

“I’m really not worthy to stand here,” he said. “This is the very place where Martin Luther King stood, as well, some 42 years ago.” Thursday, Bush noted, would have been King’s 75th birthday.

After picking up $1 million at a luncheon at the National D-Day Museum here, the president flew to Atlanta, where he laid a wreath at King’s grave.

There, his motorcade arrived to a chorus of boos from protesters who had gathered across the street. They largely were obscured by five buses that provided a shield for the presidential entourage.

Coretta Scott King, widow of the civil rights leader, and Christine King Farris, his sister, escorted Bush to the gravesite. There, the president placed a wreath and stood briefly in silent prayer before departing.

Some community activists expressed unhappiness with Bush’s visit, saying it disrupted their own plans to honor the civil rights leader on his birthday.

But White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said it was an appropriate way for the president to honor “a lifetime dedicated to fighting for opportunity and equal justice for all people.”

Before returning to Washington, Bush collected $1.3 million at a reelection fundraiser in Atlanta, bringing to more than $100 million the cash the GOP campaign has on hand.