Bush Visits the U.P.

No politics in this post.

I'm delighted that the presidential candidates are paying attention to the people of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

President Bush spoke in Marquette today, becoming the first sitting President to visit the U.P. since President Taft in 1911. He is the first major Republican candidate to visit in quite some time.

The Democratic presidential candidates of the past or their proxies have visited up there before; Gore was up there twice I think. It's been a while since this kind of national attention was paid to the U.P. so I think it's great.

I attended a speech that then-Vice President Gore gave in Marquette back in '96. It was OK but I was watching the sign language interpreter standing next to the Vice President as the interpreter was my mother. There were protests going on so I was a little concerned that she was standing that close to the Vice President. Everything went well with that speech; the Secret Service did a very good job of keeping things in hand.

Today's speech was at the Northern Michigan University Superior Dome, which, by the way, is the largest wooden dome in the world.

It would be nice if Kerry or Edwards visited too.