NEW ORLEANS — A day after announcing a new space initiative, President Bush focused on more earthly concerns Thursday, picking up $2.3 million for his reelection campaign while courting African American voters in the Deep South.
Promoting his faith-based initiative at the Union Bethel AME Church here, Bush touted his proposal in uncharacteristically personal terms, telling his audience in a soft, conversational tone: "Many of the problems that are facing our society are problems of the heart. Addiction is the problem of the heart. I know....I was a drinker. I quit drinking because I changed my heart."
As many in the predominantly black audience murmured their approval, Bush quipped: "I guess I was a one-man faith-based program."
While Bush was warmly received at the church, his stop later in the day to place a wreath at the gravesite of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta sparked a much cooler reception. An estimated 700 protesters, deriding the president's agenda as harmful to blacks, denounced his visit and the Iraq war. The president did not acknowledge the protesters.
In New Orleans, before addressing several hundred community activists at Union Bethel, Bush met with 19 area leaders, telling them: "I want to tell you this right off the bat: We're not talking politics. We're talking saving lives."
He said his faith-based initiative was "based upon some personal experiences of mine and some practical application of public policy.... We all make decisions based upon our own life experiences. That was my life experience. I wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't ask for Christ's help in my heart."
Both as a candidate in 2000 and as president, Bush has spoken about his onetime drinking problem, but rarely has he dwelt on it as he did Thursday. Bush, 57, has said he quit drinking after a particularly raucous 40th birthday party.
Bush's faith-based initiative would allow religious organizations that provide social services to compete with secular agencies for public funding.
Although the proposal has stalled in Congress, Bush has issued a series of executive orders directing federal agencies to give such religious organizations "equal treatment" during grant-making considerations.
In his speech at Union Bethel, which feeds the homeless and offers an array of children's programs, Bush urged the audience to lobby Congress for the initiative.
