And one day later President Bush will fly in.

Rumsfeld's addition to the already loaded schedule was confirmed Tuesday by American Legion spokesman Joe March.

Rumsfeld and Rice will speak Tuesday and, according to the White House, Bush will take the mic Thursday - with Wednesday dominated by protests.

The events are expected to fuse the war in Iraq with election-year politics, giving the White House trio a chance to "take an unpopular war and somehow turn it into a political asset," according to Michael Lyons, Utah State University political scientist.

With the election season ramping up, members of the administration have routinely jabbed Democrats who suggest removing troops from Iraq.

Lyons said the strategy - relying on national security and defense - has worked for Republicans in the past.

"But one wonders with the war as unpopular as it is, if this will work," he said. "I have doubts."

In a recent CNN poll, just 35 percent of respondents said they supported the war in Iraq and only 42 percent back the president.

But those numbers are much higher in Utah.

A SurveyUSA poll taken last week once again showed that Utah backed Bush more than any other state, with respondents giving him a 59 percent approval rating.

The American Legion convention offers Bush "the friendliest audience in the world" to reiterate the main message of his administration for the past four years: that "only Republicans can keep you safe," said University of Utah political scientist Ron Hrebenar.

Bush visited Utah last year to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention and was met by large protests.

He will get similar treatment this time, though he may not be around to see or hear his detractors.

The anti-Bush rally is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Salt Lake City-County Building, headlined by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and Cindy Sheehan, who has become the most recognizable face of the opposition to the war since her son died in Iraq.

But the president is not scheduled to arrive until later that day. Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush will fly from Crawford, Texas, to Little Rock, Ark., then onto Nashville, Tenn., and finally to Utah.

Salt Lake County Republican Chairman James Evans criticized protest organizers for their timing, saying: "They are always out of touch."

Crystal Young-Otterstrom said the protest leaders heard about a week and a half ago that Bush may not speak on the same day as the demonstration, but plans were already in place.

"When he wakes up the next morning he will see the paper with the protest in it," she said. "This might be the reddest state in the nation, but there is still discontent here."

Evans is organizing a pro-Bush rally at the City-County Building starting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. He contacted the White House and even invited the president, along with all of Utah's major Republican officeholders. The welcome rally, meant to counter the earlier protest, is scheduled around the president's expected time of arrival.

Both Evans and Young-Otterstrom say they expect thousands of participants.

One of the possible speakers at the pro-Bush rally is Sen. Orrin Hatch, who criticized some protesters during the president's last stop in Utah.

While riding in the presidential motorcade, Hatch watched as protesters made obscene gestures at the president. Bush, with his wife by his side, made a joke about it.

"They laughed," Hatch said. "But it wasn't funny.

"As far as I am concerned they weren't really Utahns. I was embarrassed by it."

Afterward, Hatch called those protesters "nutcakes," a term he continues to stand by.

"I would never find fault with sincere protesters," he said Tuesday. "But those were not honest protesters in my eyes." Hatch hopes anti-war and anti-Bush demonstrators would "respect the office," but he doesn't expect all of them will.

"The president expects this kind of stuff, but he shouldn't get it in Utah," Hatch said. "Utah is a better place."

mcanham@sltrib.com

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Tribune reporter Thomas Burr contributed to this article.

White House road trip

Aug. 29:

Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice speak at the American Legion convention.

Aug. 30:

At 11 a.m., anti-Bush rally at the Salt Lake City-County Building with Mayor Rocky Anderson and anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan.

At 5:30 p.m., pro-Bush rally at the City and County Building with Republican officeholders. Bush expected to arrive that evening.

Aug. 31:

Bush to speak at convention, meet with LDS Church leaders and attend fundraising luncheon for Sen. Orrin Hatch.