Utah is the No. 1 Bush state

Headline in Thursday's London Daily Mirror:

"How Can 59,054,087 People Be So Dumb?"

Apparently, if we hadn't had that split in 1776, George W. Bush might not have carried London.

At that, the Mirror had it wrong. The number of Americans who voted for Bush in Tuesday's national election is actually 59,203,594 and climbing.

If the Mirror headline writer is correct, the No. 1 dummies in the Colonies reside right here between the Salt Flats and Monument Valley.

Nobody supported Bush's re-election bid more than we did here in Utah. Seventy-one percent of us voted for him, compared to 27 percent for John Kerry. That was enough to relegate Wyoming voters to No. 2 in the rankings of Bush supporters, with 69 percent, and Idaho to third place with 68 percent.

Four years ago, Wyoming was No. 1 with 68 percent support for Bush, followed by Idaho, also at 68 percent, and then Utah at 67 percent.

In 2000, the three Intermountain states together combined to deliver, in round numbers, 1 million votes to George W. Bush and 400,000 to Al Gore. In 2004, that went up to 1.2 million for Bush and 475,000 for John Kerry.

From Coeur d'Alene to Coalville to Cheyenne, we are Conservative Corridor. Republican Row. GOP Gap. Bush Boulevard.

In two elections now, the three of us have been so loyal to George Bush, by comparison a Saint Bernard looks wishy-washy.

And he's never even campaigned here. He hasn't worked a single rope line in the Gem State, the Cowboy State or the Beehive State, let alone invited us all out for the inauguration.

The president did make an appearance in Utah midway through his first term — but it took the Olympics to get him here.

Maybe we are dumb

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John Kerry carried three counties in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho — out of 96.

He got one county in each state — Ada County in the Boise area of Idaho, Teton County in the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming and Salt Lake County in Utah, where Kerry received 125,357 votes to 120,459 for Bush.

It could have been 125,358, except Rocky Anderson said he sent his vote across state lines to Wisconsin in a swap with a Wisconsin voter who agreed to vote for Kerry if the Salt Lake mayor would vote for Ralph Nader.

So, the mayor of Salt Lake City helped Kerry squeak out his narrow 15,000-vote Kerry triumph in Wisconsin.

That's providing the guy in Wisconsin did what he said he'd do. Hard to figure if you can trust someone who would swap their vote.

Kerry, by the way, failed to carry Blaine County in Idaho despite the fact he and his wife, Theresa, own a home in Blaine County — in Ketchum, to be precise. But the home was originally built by Theresa's late first husband, John Heinz, the ketchup heir and distinguished senator from Pennsylvania — who was a Republican.

All this, plus don't forget it was Wyoming that put the "Cheney" in the Bush-Cheney ticket and it was Utah that contributed Karl Rove, the political strategist who masterminded both of Bush's triumphant campaigns. Before Rove learned how to elect presidents, he was a student at Olympus High School in Salt Lake City and after that the University of Utah.

You could say the road to the White House started here . . . just don't say it too loudly if you're in London.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.