First Lady Laura Bush says she’ll be separated from her husband for a good share of time between now and Election Day. First Lady Laura Bush visited Council Bluffs and Des Moines Wednesday to promote reading, but during a news conference Mrs. Bush said she’ll have a more active role in campaigning. Mrs. Bush says she likes to be with her husband, and plans to try to travel with him the in closing days of the campaign, but for a couple of months the two will travel separately to “reach more parts of the country.” Mrs. Bush is a better-known quantity this time around. She says people know her better than they did in 2000, and she’s been able to have a forum to talk about important issues. The most recent development in the presidential campaign is the announcement that John Edwards will be John Kerry’s runningmate. Mrs. Bush suggested Edwards’ presence won’t change the race that much. Mrs. Bush says she still supports the Bush/Cheney ticket, and she says the two men “share the values and the character of most people in the United States, including of course Iowans and Nebraskans and people in the heartland here.” President Bush will debate his democratic challenger John Kerry, but Mrs. Bush does not wish to debate Teresa Heinz-Kerry. Mrs. Bush says the two are currently engaged in the Family Circle cookie contest. Her entry is a chocolate chunk sour cherry cookie. “It’s really good,” Mrs. Bush said. That’s not the review Mrs. Bush has for Fahrenheit 9/11, the documentary that’s critical of her husband’s march to war in Iraq. “I think it’s propaganda,” Mrs. Bush said. Mrs. Bush read to a group of four and five-year-old kids who go to a day care center in a Des Moines hospital. She touted a program called “Reach Out and Read” in which doctors talk with parents about the importance of reading to their kids.
