PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Rhode Island prepared Wednesday to welcome President Bush to a state that routinely gives him his lowest job approval ratings in the nation.

Thursday’s visit will be the first to the Ocean State of Bush’s presidency. He was scheduled to speak about terrorism to an invitation-only crowd at the Naval War College in Newport before heading to his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend.

It’s no surprise Bush has skipped visits to this heavily Democratic state. He is so disliked here that the popular and liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee was voted out last year in favor of a Democrat who ran mostly on an anti-Bush platform.

Vice President Dick Cheney visited Newport in 2003, and first lady Laura Bush was here last year.

Bush was scheduled to arrive Thursday morning at Quonset Air National Guard Base in North Kingstown before heading across Narragansett Bay to the college, billed as the nation’s leading center of strategic thought and national security policy development for the Navy.

How many will show?

Carolyn Harney, a college spokeswoman, said she did not know how large the audience would be, but it would include members of the military and civilians. She said Bush would be only the fifth sitting president to visit the college since it was founded in 1884. The last president to visit was Navy veteran John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Republican Gov. Don Carcieri invited Bush to the Ocean State, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said. Carcieri suggested this week to coincide with a meeting of the Republican Governors Association, the Tall Ships Rhode Island maritime festival in Newport and the 50th anniversary of the Naval Command College, a school at the war college for military officers from around the world. Bush is not expected to attend the governors’ meeting.

“Governor Carcieri is excited that President Bush will finally have an opportunity to visit Rhode Island,” Neal said in a written statement. “Although the President’s visit will be brief, the governor hopes that he has the chance to soak in some of Rhode Island’s heritage and culture.”

‘No big deal’

Some Rhode Islanders shrugged off the visit.

“It’s not a big deal,” said Mary O’Connor, 24, of Lincoln, adding that she wasn’t surprised it would be Bush’s first presidential visit to Rhode Island. “We’re a liberal state.”

Her co-worker at a mutual fund company in Providence, Jennifer Respalie, an independent voter from Warren, said she wasn’t a Bush fan. Why? The war in Iraq for one, but she goes on: “Social Security, education, the economy.”

In Newport, a protest was planned Thursday outside the Naval War College. Organizers said they weren’t sure how many people to expect, but police said they didn’t anticipate any problems.

“They have a right to express their views in a peaceful manner,” Newport Police Lt. William Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald warned, though, that drivers should expect delays and closed roads around Newport Thursday due to the president’s visit, the Tall Ships event and the governors’ meeting.

“This is summer in Newport,” he said.

—

On the Net:

Naval War College: http://www.nwc.navy.mil/

AP-ES-06-27-07 1612EDT