George Bush is Afraid to Visit San Francisco

The San Francisco Chronicle's front page story illustrates how Bush is cowardly staying away from San Francisco. Maybe he's afraid of the thousands of protesters who would clog the streets, or maybe he suffers from a guilty conscience because his FEC did nothing while Kenny Boy and the rest of Enron stole from Grandma Milly, but I doubt that. We can clearly see that he doesn't have a conscience.

"Presidents arrived by stagecoach and jet. One was shot at. Another died. In all, 20 presidents have visited the city, including every chief executive for the past 75 years. Except George W. Bush."

Dada points out that Bush might not be so welcome in some red state cities either. Gryphen at Immoral Minority points out that the mayor of Salt Lake City is urging citizens to protest Bush's planned photo-op there:

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention.

Candi sent a copy of an article by Paul Harris from The Guardian where he says that Cindy Sheehan has tipped the balance against Bush.

Candles were lit all across America last week in one of the largest single anti-war protests in recent US history. At more than 1,600 vigils tens of thousands of protesters gathered in solidarity with the woman who has been the catalyst for the rebirth of the anti-war movement: Cindy Sheehan.

Her remarkable one-woman stand outside George Bush's Texas ranch has turned into a national phenomenon - and one of the most vicious political slanging matches in recent US history. On the pro-war side, Sheehan has been derided as a traitor to America, betraying her dead soldier son's memory. On the anti-war side she has become a secular saint, laden with the powerful imagery of the avenging mother roused to action. For them, she is the lone soccer mom who is taking on Bush - and winning.

Harris also collected excerpts from various sources that I'm providing here, but you can read his entire article here.

Perhaps someday a President will greet Cindy Sheehan this way: 'So you're the little woman who stopped the Iraq war' - New York Daily News columnist Mike Goodwin

Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming on to it. It's not real - Radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh comparing media coverage of Sheehan to the 'Memogate' saga last year over President Bush's National Guard record

It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out or invite her in for a cup of tea - New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

Cindy Sheehan has become a political player whose primary concern is embarrassing the President. She is no longer just a protester -Fox News conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly

Sheehan has obviously taken a short course in the Michael Moore school of Iraq analysis and has not succeeded in making it one atom more elegant or persuasive - Pro-war Vanity Fair writer Chistopher Hitchens

As a result of Cindy's success, Bush will declare a war of words. He continues to invoke 9/11 as an excuse for the invasion of Iraq, demonstrating that he's out of touch with reality, out of touch with the truth and is hoping to impose this insanity upon the rest of us.