Bush given warm welcome at K-State

President does draw some protesters

photo by: AP File

President Bush holds up a football jersey presented to him by Kansas State University Jon Wefald, right, at the 142nd Landon Lecture Monday, Jan. 23, 2006 in Manhattan, Kan.

MANHATTAN, KAN. ? President Bush’s visit Monday to Kansas State University inspired dozens of Kansans to protest, but he still received a warm welcome in what even Democrats conceded was friendly Republican territory for him.

Between 150 and 200 people protested outside Bramlage Coliseum as the audience of 9,000 or so people arrived for Bush’s Landon Lecture on fighting terrorism around the globe. Many opposed the war in Iraq; some carried signs that said Bush was guilty of “crimes against humanity” and accused him of lying about why the U.S. led an invasion of Iraq.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius sat on stage with Bush, and she and other officials had described his visit as an honor. Many in the crowd were unapologetic Bush supporters.

“He does what he thinks is right and sticks with it,” said Michael Proctor, a 19-year-old Kansas State University freshman studying accounting.

Sebelius had hoped for what she called “face time” with the president to discuss some issues with him, including equipment left in Iraq by returning National Guard troops, which she hopes to see replaced.

Bush joked about their ride in his car in the presidential motorcade, noting that Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Republicans, were also there. He thanked Sebelius for putting up with him – and them.

What others are saying:

“One hour with the three of us required a lot of patience,” he said.

Bush was the third sitting president to deliver a Landon Lecture in the 40-year-old series, following Ronald Reagan in 1982 and Richard Nixon in 1970. He used his speech to defend how he has conducted the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and his decision to go to war.

Protesters expected he would. Outside the coliseum, Phyllis Malone, of Manhattan, a retired mother of seven, said she thought the war was a big mistake, because Bush misled Americans into thinking Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. She carried a sign saying, “Lies, lies, lies.”

“I turned 75 last week, and I figured it was time I did something,” she said. “We went into it under false pretenses.”

About 100 people lined one walkway into the coliseum, while about 80 lined another; the two groups later joined forces.

“I think the longer it goes on, the less support it’s going to have,” said Karen Myers-Bowman, a Kansas State associate professor of family studies.

Even Bush supporter Jeremy Dautenhahn, a 22-year-old Kansas State senior studying business management, said he would like to see progress in bringing American troops home. But he called the protesters’ area “the hippie cage.”

President Bush gestures during a speech at Kansas State University about the war on terror.

“They’re really not going to get any air time in the minds of the students,” he said. “I wouldn’t consider this a Democratic campus, or a liberal campus.”

Kansas has been a reliable Republican state in presidential elections for four decades, the last Democrat to carry the state being Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Bush won 58 percent of the vote in 2000 and 62 percent in 2004. His margins in Riley County, home of Kansas State University, were about the same.

“I think it’s a shame that they really don’t realize we’re at war and that their lives and futures are at stake,” state Rep. Joe McLeland, a Wichita Republican, said of the protesters. “It’s amazing they don’t understand what we’re facing.”

A few Kansas State University students, such as Megan Challender, a 20-year-old senior studying political science, obtained tickets but refused to attend the speech as a protest.

But other students who opposed Bush or had misgivings about his administration still wanted to hear his speech.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I might as well take it,” said Matt Larman, an 18-year-old freshman studying animal science.

Few Kansans of any political stripe thought it odd for Sebelius to be on stage or share a ride with Bush, viewing it as a matter of protocol.

Sebelius shared the stage with Bush in May 2004, when he came to Topeka for the dedication of the national historical site for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation unconstitutional.

Bush’s speech Monday was the 142nd in the lecture series, named for former Gov. Alf Landon, the 1936 Republican presidential nominee who gave the first address in 1966.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was a speaker last year, and other past lectures have been given by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford; former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson.