Hectic week: Legion, rallies, president kept Utah in spotlight

A week of luminary visitors, speeches, demonstrations, traffic jams and variations of patriotic fervor ended Thursday as the American Legion's national convention wrapped up in Salt Lake City.

Not since the 2002 Winter Olympics has Utah been the subject of such national, even international, attention.

President Bush spent 15 hours in Utah — arriving at an attendance-by-ticket welcome rally at the Utah Air National Guard Base, overnighting at the Grand America Hotel, meeting Thursday with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, addressing the veterans' convention and speaking at a partisan fund-raiser for U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, before leaving at noon Thursday.

Wednesday saw half a dozen noisy rallies in Salt Lake City — some for Bush and the war, some against Bush, some for U.S. troops, even one on immigration reform — all occurring before the president's arrival about 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Last weekend Legionnaires marched in a downtown parade, and on Tuesday they heard speeches by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

And amid all of the goings-on, one Utah family — who lost their Marine Corps son to a roadside bomb in Iraq Aug. 20 — held a sad funeral Wednesday. The family of Cpl. Adam Galvez, 21, also met with Rumsfeld and Bush and received a standing ovation from the Legionnaires during the president's speech.

Brigham Young University political science professor Kelly Patterson said it appears Bush accomplished some of what he wished by his Utah visit.

"To rally support for a particular policy is a long-term strategy," said Patterson, who heads up the university's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. "But (Bush) needs some external help — like some good news out of Iraq."

Bush now continues on the road, stumping for the war and GOP candidates. "The president can help rally the Republican base," says Patterson. But that could have a downside as well — rallying opposition to the war at the same time. "Salt Lake was a perfect example" of that anti-Bush, anti-war sentiment, he added.

GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said it is always good to have a presidential visit. "It focuses the national media's spotlight on Utah for at least a day." But Utah actually was illuminated for nearly a week, as other top administration officials also addressed the convention.