Cheney to address BYU grads (meaning me)
Cheney to address BYU grads
The heartland of Utah's conservatism likely will welcome the vice president
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 03/22/2007 11:44:23 AM MDT
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Vice President Dick Cheney
WASHINGTON - With the Bush administration under fire from seemingly all sides, where can a vice president find a loving crowd?
In the conservative heart of the most conservative state.
Vice President Dick Cheney will speak at Brigham Young University's commencement in late April, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.
The vice president is looking forward to returning to Utah to participate in the commencement at Brigham Young University, said Cheney spokesman Jamie Hennigan.
The vice president is tentatively scheduled to speak on April 26 at the Provo university's graduation ceremony. Cheney last visited the state in 2003 to raise money for his and President Bush's 2004 election bid.
BYU has about 30,000 students and is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"I think he'll find the audience to be very accommodating and very receptive and very hospitable," says Kelly Patterson, director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, when told of the vice president's scheduled visit. "It's an honor when a vice president or the president comes to speak at a university. There are only a limited number of these engagements they can do."
Cheney's popularity has hovered in the lower 30s of late with a Gallup Poll on March 14 showing Americans' job approval rating of Cheney at 34 percent, just a point under Bush's.
But his approval in Utah, the reddest state in the nation, and especially in Utah County, one of the most conservative areas in the state, is undoubtedly higher.
A Tribune poll in January still showed Bush with a 56 percent job approval rating among Utahns.
BYU plans a universitywide commencement ceremony at the Marriott Center on April 26 and the next day will hold individual college events to award degrees.
Cheney, who is from Wyoming, has ties to Mormons, including a longtime staffer, David Gribben, who converted to the LDS Church and was Cheney's chief of staff during his time in Congress, as Defense secretary and at his former company, Halliburton. Lynne Cheney, his wife, also has said she has ancestors who were Mormon and migrated from Wales to Utah.
Bush has made two stops in Utah during the past two years, at conventions for the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. He came once during his first term to open the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.