Crawford embraces Bush, not protesters

"I'm a Democrat and proud of it," Keith Lynch, 67, said while taking a break from trimming the brush around the flag pole in front of his 600-acre ranch "about a mile and a half as the crow flies" from the Bush spread.

"But you're got to respect your country, you've got to respect your flag, and you've got to respect your president."

Lynch and others around the town of 745 people believe that respect hasn't been around the past couple of weeks as Crawford, about 95 miles south of Dallas in Central Texas, has been invaded by more than a hundred people protesting Bush and the Iraq war.

"Like the circus, it needs to pack up and go," said Kim Williams, a 41-year-old mother of two.

"They have every right to speak their mind and say their piece, but they've just kind of taken over," Williams said. "I just wish they'd go home. It gets old."

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion," Nelson, 59, said. "Part of the American way."

As for the war, he backs Bush.

"Freedom and liberty," he said, describing the accomplishments in Iraq. "I don't see them as a bad thing."

Many of his neighbors in the area feel the same way. McLennan County, which surrounds Crawford, voted for Bush over Democrat John Kerry 65 percent to 33 percent in the 2004 presidential election. The Democratic mayor was replaced this year with a Republican.

Kay and Bill Bregan thrill when the presidential motorcade drives past the big eagle carved out of wood that sits out front.

"We stand over here and he waves at us," Kay Bregan, 65, said of her encounters with the president as his motorcade passes the eagle her woodworker-husband made.

"One day (Bush) drove by after he got a hamburger, rolled down the window and gave my husband a thumbs up," she said. "He was thrilled to death."

Bregan supports the president.

"Of course I hate to see all the boys and girls killed there," she said. "But I think to pull out of this war would be the worst mistake we could ever made... We didn't get to be free without fighting for it. It doesn't come easy. I pray everyday the killing will end in Iraq, but I don't agree with wanting to pull out."

Most of the dozen or so ranching families living close to the Bush property appear to have had enough of protesters and reporters and traffic. Those without closed ranch gates to their property have put up ropes, yellow plastic tape or "No Trespassing" or "No Parking" signs to keep others away � and next to U.S. flags or banners of support that read, "For Our Commander In Chief."

"It's kind of embarrassing," said Lynch, who with his wife, Boo, raised three children on land that's been in his family for 158 years. "I'm sure it's embarrassing to President and Mrs. Bush.