GoElvis.com,

Bush takes leader for Memphis visit; Presleys host him at Graceland; trip includes stop at civil rights shrine

The Tourist in Chief made his inaugural trip to Graceland on Friday, but it was President Bush’s guest from Japan who rocked Memphis with his fervent adulation for the King of Rock and Roll.

Strutting and singing and doing his best Elvis lunge across the shag carpet of the Jungle Room, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi delighted the president, first lady Laura Bush and tour guides Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley.

“You’re a pretty good Elvis singer,” Bush said, and with the pack of media in the room entreating him, Koizumi delivered a teasing cabaret of tunes that make metaphors hard to resist.

“Love me tender,” he crooned, giving the appropriate serenade to a love-fest of a visit from the retiring Japanese leader to his pal in Washington.

“Wise men say, only fools rush in,” Koizumi sang, beginning another love song but summing up what many dozen protesters across the street said in a less polite way about their dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq.

Putting his arm around Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, the popular prime minister with the Hollywood mane tried out his signature Elvis tune, singing, “Hold me close, hold me tight.”

When a Graceland curator allowed Koizumi to don a pair of authentic gold sunglasses worn by the King in 1973, the prime minister dipped and thrust out his right hand while delivering a many-syllabled “Glory, glory hallelujah.”

The first two heads of state to visit Graceland at the same time - it was also a first visit for both Bush, 59, and Koizumi, 64 - have long since moved beyond diplomatic flirtations, and the fun, lighthearted visit to Memphis (even a few local Democrats smiled and yukked with Bush, dressed sans tie with sleeves rolled up) came just a few weeks after a state visit to Europe that drew hordes of protesters.

At Thursday’s White House press conference, Bush used the friendship between Japan and the U.S., 60 years after battling one another, as a reason to remain optimistic despite the difficulties in the Middle East. Koizumi and Japan were part of the coalition that supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Bush lightened the comparison on Friday, dwelling instead on the bond Koizumi made with America because of the music of a Memphis original.

“His reputation was so strong that he attracted the attention of the now prime minister of Japan,” Bush said after the tour, which lasted about 75 minutes.

“This visit here shows that not only am I personally fond of the prime minister, but the ties between our peoples are strong, as well.”

Koizumi, whose English is heavily accented, gushed, “It is like a dream.” Then he tried a few bars of Elvis’ “Dream the Impossible Dream.”

Although the president never donned the plastic souvenir Elvis glasses nor gyrated even once, the visit had the feel of a class field trip.

The president’s staff, including senior adviser Karl Rove, snapped pictures in front of the pink Cadillac parked in front of the mansion, and more than a few sported the sunglasses.

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches were eaten by staff on the Air Force One ride to Memphis.

The jet arrived in Memphis at 10 a.m. Among those greeting the arrival were new U.S. Atty. Gen. David Kustoff (Tennessee campaign manager for Bush in 2004) and Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton.

All along the 30-car motorcade’s route to Graceland - which began on Democrat Road - gaggles of people stood and waved, took pictures and held signs. That scene repeated throughout the four-hour visit, with the largest crowds camped near Graceland and in the cordoned-off downtown blocks surrounding the Rendezvous, where Bush, Koizumi and a several dozen others ate lunch.

The motorcade surprised those in the South Main area - and the hungry media - by making an unexpected stop at the National Civil Rights Museum. Bush greeted several stunned children with handshakes and shoulder taps.

The president and prime minister took a quick tour and later stood on the Lorraine Motel’s balcony with former NAACP president Dr. Benjamin Hooks and AutoZone founder Pitt Hyde.

Standing behind the wreath that marks the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968, Hyde and Hooks pointed across the street to the former boarding house from where James Earl Ray fired the fatal shots. That building, now part of the museum, was not cleared, and people were crowded up to the windows to watch.

Secret Service personnel scrambled into position, but minutes later Bush and Koizumi headed to the Rendezvous.

A crowd that included Tennessee Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bill Frist and U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. joined the party for a big lunch in the upstairs banquet room.

The Dempseys, a Memphis rockabilly trio, provided the swinging Elvis cover tunes, and even enticed Koizumi to perform with them, going back to his favorite, “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.”

“I watched him throughout most of the lunch, and he was cheering and applauding and pumping his fists,” said Rollin Riggs, the band’s manager.

After nearly an hour at the Rendezvous, the motorcade traveled back the the Tennessee National Air Guard hangar.

After the president honored Cordova resident Sandi Langley for her volunteer work, he boarded Air Force One and left Memphis airspace at about 2:10, bound for an event in Ohio.

Koizumi met with executives from Sharp and Brother, Japanese companies with a Memphis presence, then departed about 2:45 on his jumbo jet with the round red dot on the tail.

“It was a great visit,” said Tom Schieffer, the American ambassador to Japan. “Just a terrific afternoon.”