Seriously, Buhler said, it is unfortunate that the mayor "would encourage a demonstration of a major convention that potentially could disrupt that convention. I mean, do we want these big conventions in Salt Lake or not? It's not very hospitable of the mayor. We should welcome any president, no matter who he is.

"This convention is not a partisan convention. It's veterans who served our country. It is not appropriate for an elected official trying to stir up protests; it's counterproductive. The convention business is very important to us," Buhler said.

The VFW, whose 15,000 delegates will gather today through Thursdayin Salt Lake City, has 1.8 million members who served in the military overseas in some kind of U.S. conflict. The group is known for its patriotism and has roundly cheered former U.S. presidents when they addressed their conventions.

Protests at VFW conventions are nothing new, especially when the president speaks, Newberry said.

"The president has appeared at our convention before, and we've always had people protest for one reason or another. That's what happens when the president appears anywhere."

Usually, Newberry said, the protests do not involve officials from the host cities. Has that happened before?

"Not to my knowledge," he said. Still, the Salt Lake mayor's effort is not going to put a damper on the convention, he added.

"We're here to conduct business. We're here to welcome our commander-in-chief, and that's what we're going to do," Newberry said. "If they want to protest, that's their right as Americans."

It's the VFW's third convention in Salt Lake City in 10 years.

Anderson said no Republican should connect a call to protest Bush's administration with the city's efforts in seeking local conventions.

"For any Republican to complain about any impact on conventions — they should examine how disastrous their polices are, including hostility toward gays and lesbians, in terms of the economic impact of lost conventions in state of Utah," Anderson said.

Bush, who is taking a five-week working vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, is breaking from that schedule to give the keynote speech. It will be the president's first visit to Utah since he officially opened the Winter Olympics in February 2002 in Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"I guess it was OK for the president to come then," Buhler said.

Anderson "sat in the box" in the stadium with the president on that occasion, Buhler said.

While his job approval ratings are suffering nationwide, Bush remains popular in Utah, which gave him his largest margin of victory of any state in 2000. A June 2 poll conducted for the Morning News and KSL-TV by Dan Jones & Associates found that 74 percent of Utahns like the job Bush is doing as president. Only 15 percent disapproved of Bush's job performance.