Bush to Cut Vacation Short
Saturday, August 18, 2001
CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush has made no secret of his preference for life on the ranch, but he has decided to return to Washington a few days early from his vacation.
Bush has been here since Aug. 4. He had tentatively planned to go back Labor Day, Sept. 3.
Instead, Bush will return to the White House Aug. 31, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday. The president is likely to maintain the low profile he has kept this month, either at the White House or at Camp David, the spokesman said.
Bush plans to take a Labor Day trip, but Fleischer did not disclose his destination.
Fleischer said the administration had originally blocked out the period through Sept. 3 to get Bush's entourage to plan for a full month, in case he stayed that long.
"There was never a final determination made on exactly how long the president would remain in Crawford," Fleischer said.
Bush plans to fly to several cities in the next two weeks to promote various initiatives.
Monday, he will attend the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention and tour a Harley-Davidson plant in Milwaukee.
He will appear at a high school in Kansas City on Tuesday, touting his budget priorities, including Medicare and Social Security.
On Aug. 26, Bush will visit with union workers in Pittsburgh and attend the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. And on Aug. 29, he will attend an American Legion national convention in San Antonio, Texas.
The travel is part of what Bush has called his "Home to the Heartland" tour, in which he extols values he says are embodied in ``communities of character'' throughout the nation's midsection.
Asked this week whether he thought those values were less prevalent on the coasts, Bush said: "No, not at all."
"Listen, the values are very prevalent throughout America," he told reporters gathered on his ranch. "It's just that my house is not on the coast; my house is in Texas. I'm a Texan."
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