Bush stresses 'economic vitality' in speech to BMW employees

President Bush is greeted by, from left, S.C. House speaker David Wilkins, Congressman Jim DeMint, Senator Lindsay Graham and Governor Mark Sanford as he arrives at the FedEx facility in Spartanburg. Staff/Bart Boatwright e-mail this story to a friend Related Related stories: • President's visit may stall traffic • Bush signs Congaree National Park law Photo gallery • Bush visits the Upstate

The president acknowledged the pain that the present economy has brought to the textile industry but said, "you just got to know there are programs to help people transition" to new and better paying jobs.

Refering to the improving economic data released last week showing an increase in jobs, Bush said "that's positive, for somebody looking for work. We're here to talk about making it better."

Presidential strategist Karl Rove, standing nearby, clapped vigorously as Bush concluded and said, "He hit a home run."

Bush arrived at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport aboard Air Force One at about 3:45 p.m. and spoke briefly on the tarmac with a Greenville volunteer coordinator and an Anderson family before going to BMW.

Gov. Mark Sanford, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. 4th District Rep. Jim DeMint and South Carolina House Speaker David Wilkins met Bush at the airport and also went to BMW. First Lady Laura Bush was campaigning in Maine.

Robin Longino, a project coordinator for Hands On For Greenville, gave Bush a t-shirt and chatted briefly with him. Hands on Greenville has 1,200 volunteers who paint schools, clean parks and provide other community services. Bush has promoted volunteerism, including the creation of the USDA Freedom Corps.

Bush also met on the tarmac with the Comen family, whose son, Ben, was written about in Sports Illustrated last month. Ben Comen competes as a runner at T.L. Hanna despite having cerebal palsy. Bush asked to meet the family after reading the article. A staff member called the family Sunday and asked that they meet him at the airport.

The family gave Bush a Hanna sweatshirt, just as someone gave Bush's father a Hanna sweatshirt when he was president.

"He just congratulated me and told me he's a runner," Ben Comen said.

"What advice did he give you guys?" the mother asked Ben and his twin brother Alex after Bush had left the airport.

"Listen to our mother," they said.

Bush engaged in a town-hall-like meeting with BMW employees for about 30 minutes. Most of the conversation centered on jobs.

At the Spinx station on State 101 near the BMW plant, about 50 people gathered to see the presidential motorcade as it passed. A teen sat on the hood of a car and two families stood in the back of pickup trucks.

Bush passed by at about 5 p.m. on his way to a $2,000-per-plate dinner at Palmetto Expo Center. With the gleaming, high-tech BMW assembly facilities as a television backdrop, gave Bush "the opportunity to say that we can build jobs, that the economy is starting to turn around and investment does in fact trickle down into jobs at some point," said Brad Gomez, a University of South Carolina professor who specializes in the presidency.

Bush visit comes three days after the Labor Department announced glowing new job creation figures, a shot in the arm for an administration under fire over the loss of jobs since it took over. However, the report showed also that the manufacturing sector continued to shed jobs.

In-state Democrats didn't let Bush's visit go by unnoticed.

Joe Erwin, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Bush was remiss for presiding over a "jobless recovery" and failing to address the plight of the 128,000 South Carolinians who are unemployed and the loss of 58,000 manufacturing jobs since he took office.

Erwin, a Greenville advertising executive, said the administration "is very quick to flaunt its role as a global military superpower, but when it comes to trade agreements, it negotiates with all the might of a third-world country. Bad (trade) legislation, has cost South Carolina dearly, since it forces us to compete against countries with sub-standard wages, lax environmental laws, and devalued currencies."

In Washington, the Todd Malan, executive director of the Organization for International Investment, praised Bush for using BMW to highlight the contributions of international investment. The group represents U.S. subsidiaries of companies headquartered abroad.

"The global economy is not a one way street and the President's trip to the BMW facility is a wonderful way for people to see just one of the many examples of how the country benefits from international investment," Malan said.

The fund-raiser was expected to generate more than $1 million for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, which broke the $94 million mark with a Winston-Salem, N.C., event on Friday.

Guests were to dine on wild field greens with vinaigrette dressing, lemongrass chicken with mixed vegetables, and chocolate mousse.

While Democrats and some industry leaders have criticized Bush for what they said was glossing over the accelerating decline of the region's textile industry, his selection of BMW, the hub of the region's growing automotive industry, as the site of remarks on the economy had symbolic overtones.

The BMW stop was a late addition to his schedule. As an official presidential event, it allows for a portion of the costs of the trip to be shifted from the Republican National Committee to the taxpayers, a move that administrations of both parties have used for years.

About two hours before the president arrived, Spartanburg County Sheriff's deputies swept the parking lot near the FedEx building with look like miniature German shepherds and towed a white Camaro away.

Tommy Watson, chief of the Greenville Spartanburg Airport Police Department, said the dogs reacted to the car but officers could not find anything. It was towed as a precaution.

The president is scheduled for an early evening departure from GSP.

It is Bush's sixth visit to South Carolina since taking office in January, 2001, and the first since he campaigned in Greenville in March 2002 for then Congressman and now Sen. Graham.

Bush and his presidential father have close ties to the state and its Republican establishment. In 1988, then-Gov. Carroll Campbell's organization propelled the elder Bush to a primary victory that quickly steered him to the presidential nomination after an upset in the New Hampshire primary. Those same GOP elements repeated the favor in 2000 after the younger Bush was upset in New Hampshire by Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

President Bush carried South Carolina with 57 percent of the vote in winning the White House three years ago.