Bush raises $2 million, visits LDS leaders

President Bush spent less than 24 hours in Utah, but that was enough time for him to raise more than $2 million toward keeping the White House in Republican hands.

Before leaving shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday, the president made his only official stop in the state, a nearly hourlong private meeting with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"They had a good visit," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

This was the president's fourth meeting with LDS Church leaders, and his first since the death of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley and the sustaining of a new First Presidency.

Topics discussed included President Thomas S. Monson's relationship with Bush's parents, former President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush, Perino said.

Also talked about were "foreign policy issues, Middle East peace, domestic issues ranging from the economy and energy, and then a little bit about what the president will do" after his term ends in January, she said.

Asked whether Bush raised any religious issues with the First Presidency, Perino said nothing "specifically religious" was discussed. She was one of three White House staffers who sat in on the meeting.

"They did say that they do pray for the president, they support the presidency, and (are) a very patriotic people," Perino said. "But they didn't talk about any specific thing in terms of their church and their needs."

Bush had no public appearances during his visit to the state, which began when Air Force One landed mid-afternoon Wednesday at the Utah Air National Guard Base. He then attended two private fundraisers for the "McCain Victory 2008" fund. The fund benefits the candidacy of Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, and the Republican National Committee, as well as several of the party's state committees.

McCain, who reportedly collected some $375,000 in contributions last March at a fundraiser held in the Grand America Hotel, wasn't in Utah for the fundraisers headlined by the president Wednesday.

But Mitt Romney, his former rival in the race for the White House, co-hosted both the $10,000-a-person luncheon held at a private residence in the Avenues and a $70,100-a-couple evening reception held in Romney's massive Deer Valley vacation home.

Those events, along with a $500-a-person opportunity to hear the president speak after the luncheon, raised more than $2 million. Most of that money, about $1.8 million, came from the 60 or so people attending the reception at Romney's house.