Bush Returns to Campaigning

After a weeklong hiatus at his central Texas ranch, President Bush returns to the campaign trail, with a vengeance.

He will attend three rallies in New Mexico on Thursday, and is scheduled to campaign every day through Sept. 2, when he delivers his acceptance speech in New York. And he plans to keep right on going — with little if any letup until election day.

According to White House and campaign officials, Bush’s “Moving America Forward: America’s Heart and Soul” tour will take him to eight closely contested states before showing up at Madison Square Garden, site of the Republican National Convention.

Along the way, the president is to be joined by several prime-time convention speakers, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; keynote speaker Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat who has endorsed Bush; Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; and Sen. John S. McCain of Arizona, Bush’s rival for the nomination in 2000.

Thursday’s trip to New Mexico will end what likely will be the longest spell of down time for the president until Nov. 2. At the ranch, he has hosted a small army of aides coming and going, from confidant Karen Hughes and chief speechwriter Mike Gerson to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and political strategist Karl Rove.

Hughes, who was White House counselor before she returned to her Austin home in 2002, has resumed her high-powered position as Bush’s traveling companion and closest advisor. At the ranch, she and Gerson have been working with the president on his acceptance speech.

In it, aides said, Bush plans to lay out his second-term agenda.

On Monday, the president conducted a lengthy annual review of military strategy, joined by Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Meyers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Since arriving on the night of Aug. 18, the president has not left his 1,600-acre ranch. He has passed his time engaged in leisurely pursuits, such as mountain-biking, his newest exercise passion since aching knees sidelined him from running last year.

In Las Cruces, Farmington and Albuquerque, Bush will be joined by Giuliani, who is to address the GOP convention Monday night. The president will return to the White House late Thursday night.

Accompanied on Friday by Miller, the president will attend a late-afternoon rally in Miami before returning to Washington.

On Saturday, Bush will fly to the swing state of Ohio for another day trip. There, he plans to board a campaign bus and motorcade from Troy to Maumee to Lima.

On Sunday, the president makes a day trip to Wheeling, W.Va., for a rally in a state that traditionally votes for the Democratic presidential candidate but sided with Bush in 2000.

On Monday, accompanied by Romney, the president is to campaign in Nashua, N.H. On Tuesday, he will appear in Nashville, Tenn., and Alleman, Iowa, with McCain at his side. In Nashville, Bush will address an American Legion gathering.

On Wednesday, Bush will address supporters in Columbus, Ohio, before arriving in New York City. That evening, he is to be formally nominated by the delegates.

In keeping with the punishing pace he is setting, Bush will depart New York the night of Sept. 2, immediately after delivering his speech, heading for Pennsylvania, another battleground state.

In his convention address, one campaign official said, “The president will lay out his vision for the next four years, a vision that will help build a safer world and a more hopeful America … and highlight his record of historic accomplishments during a time of unprecedented change, and will present a second-term agenda which will spread opportunity and prosperity to all corners of the country.”