This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

He just can't pack 'em in like he used to.

With just six months to go in his term, President Bush was met by underwhelming numbers of supporters - and protesters - on Wednesday as he visited the state often billed as "the reddest in the nation," where several prior visits have been met by thousands of angry demonstrators.

Wednesday's protests in Salt Lake City and Park City drew smaller crowds, even as polls show that Utah's support for Bush - who enjoyed his widest margin of victory in two elections in the Beehive State - has waned significantly in recent years.

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson didn't let the diminished number of demonstrators extinguish his fiery anti-Bush rhetoric. In a speech on the east steps of the Salt Lake City-County Building, Anderson decried those who oppose the president's policies in principle, but do not speak out.

"Let us all keep in mind silence is the essential collaborator with evil," Anderson told more than 500 fellow protesters.

Though the numbers were smaller than prior protests, the crowd surprised Vietnam War whistle-blower and anti-war champion Daniel Ellsberg, who spoke before Anderson and said he was getting "a very good impression of the reddest state in the union."

Among those contributing to that impression was Summer Hirschi, of Salt Lake City, whose brother recently joined the Marine Corps. Hirschi said she is supporting likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama because she hopes he will end the war in Iraq.

Hirschi said that since the presidential election in 2004, some friends and neighbors, including her landlord, who once supported Bush, have changed their minds.

"People who were once for Bush, even four years ago, are changing their opinions because the truth is coming out about the war."

But many of those at the Salt Lake City protest - and a sister demonstration in Park City - said they have always been opposed to Bush's policies.

Prospector Square homemaker Monica Swindel said she was protesting what the Bush administration's policies have done to the country's reputation in the eyes of the world.

"This country needs a change," said Swindel, also an Obama supporter. "I'm embarrassed to be an American."

She was among about 100 residents gathered to protest at the intersection of Comstock Avenue and Kearns Boulevard as the president's helicopter touched down nearby at Park City's Treasure Mountain Middle School. Later, about 150 Parkites attended a "Bush Bash BBQ" at City Park.

At least one Park City resident, however, waved a placard declaring, "Welcome, President Bush." He was clearly in the minority, but was joined - in spirit, at least - by about 200 wealthy individuals who shelled out more than $30,000 per person to gather for an evening reception with Bush and potential vice-presidential pick Mitt Romney at Romney's Deer Valley home.

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* CARLOS MAYORGA contributed to this report.