Bush visits his boyhood town Midland

MIDLAND, Texas — President Bush almost made it through his two terms without visiting his boyhood hometown. He broke the more than seven-year streak Saturday for a quick fundraising stop in Midland in West Texas.

The lunchtime event, closed to the public and media, attracted a big crowd to Republican Rep. Mike Conaway's home and benefited a joint fund set up by the national Republican Party and the House GOP's political arm. Between the Midland fundraiser and a second set for Monday in San Antonio, Bush was helping raise about $1 million for the party.

He stayed fewer than three hours on his first visit back to Midland since he breezed through town on his way to Washington for his 2001 inauguration.

That stop was an emotional send-off for a Texas native who promised at the time that his stay in Washington would be temporary. Bush has said he will return to Texas full time when his second term ends in January, though the president and first lady Laura Bush probably are headed for the cosmopolitan center of Dallas rather than West Texas.

Laura Bush grew up in Midland and has returned frequently during her White House years to visit her mother, Jenna Welch, who lives in the city and attended the fundraiser.

After the fundraiser, the president paid a surprise visit to the home where he lived as a boy with his parents. The modest gray-and-rust, three-bedroom ranch house in a blue-collar neighborhood is a privately owned museum. It has been restored to look as it did when the Bush family owned it, complete with a red tricycle outside.

"It's an amazing experience to come back to a place you were raised," Bush said after spending about 15 minutes inside.

He addressed that, in a time of war and economic chaos, his remaining time in office will not be easy.

Bush said the financial-rescue plan provided the tools necessary to stabilize credit markets, but there still is "a lot of work to be done."

"We got a couple more hard months to go," he said, his wife at his side. "In the meantime, it's good to come back where it all started for us."

Bush planned to spend the weekend at his ranch in Crawford.