GOP invokes 9-11, salutes Bush's leadership
as convention opens

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By Martin Merzer and Shannon McCaffrey

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

NEW YORK - Sounding themes that will dominate their national convention, Republicans paid tribute Monday to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and portrayed President Bush as a resolute wartime leader who must not be replaced.

At the same time, the president ignited a political brushfire by suggesting during an interview that the war on terrorism can't be won in the conventional sense. Democrats pounced on the remark.

The city hosting the convention - and the nation at large - remain shaken by the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Republicans believe that will help them sell Bush as a better wartime choice than Democrat John Kerry and attract moderate undecided voters, whose support will be key to winning the election.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., sounded the theme when addressing the convention's opening session Monday. He said voters could stay with the Republicans, who will "keep America strong," or choose the Democrats, who are "weak on the war and wrong on taxes."

"We have crushed the Taliban and promoted a democracy in Afghanistan," Hastert said. "Saddam Hussein is in jail instead of supporting terrorists and murdering his citizens and invading his neighbors. And Osama bin Laden is on the run. ...

"Folks, it's an easy choice."

As more than 4,800 delegates and alternates gathered at Madison Square Garden for the first evening session of the four-day convention, New York maintained an even keel - tense but generally peaceful - as only small protests flared.

The emotional highlights of the evening were expected to be a remembrance for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and a speech by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the city through the horrors of that day - the deaths of thousands, the destruction of the World Trade Center, the persistent sense of fear and dread.

"In times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision," he said in remarks prepared for delivery. "There are many qualities that make a great leader, but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader. ...

"George W. Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is," Giuliani said, "and he will remain consistent to the purpose of defeating it."

Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain were the featured speakers of the night, and both were expected to brush aside their considerable differences on many issues with the president and with the party platform.

McCain, for instance, disagrees with the president's positions on tax cuts, the federal budget and the size of the U.S. military force in Iraq. And they were bitter rivals for the presidential nomination four years ago.

But like Giuliani, McCain lavishly praised Bush.

"He has been tested and has risen to the most important challenge of our time, and I salute him," McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery. "I salute his determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place. He has not wavered. He has not flinched from the hard choices. He will not yield. And neither will we."

McCain, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, saluted U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere as "the very best of us." He also touched on the Sept. 11 attacks.

"That day was the moment when the hinge of history swung toward a new era ..." he said. "What our enemies have sought to destroy is beyond their reach. It cannot be taken from us. It can only be surrendered."

But the president complicated matters a bit during an interview broadcast Monday by NBC's "Today" program.

He was asked: "Can we win the war on terror?"

"I don't think you can win it," he said. "But I think you can create conditions so that the - those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan sought to clarify the remark.

"He was talking about winning it in the conventional sense," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. "You've often heard him talk about how this is a different kind of war. We face an unconventional enemy. I don't think you can expect that there will ever be a formal surrender or a treaty signed, like we have in the past."

Still, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards responded almost immediately.

"After months of listening to the Republicans base their campaign on their singular ability to win the war on terror," he said, "the president now says we can't win the war on terrorism. This is no time to declare defeat."

The speeches and other events weren't broadcast by the three major broadcast television networks. Each scheduled only one hour for the convention on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Outside the Garden, Monday's protests were far less dramatic than Sunday's massive anti-war rally.

The highlight was an anti-poverty march to the convention site by the New York City grass-roots group "Still We Rise." It drew several thousand people protesting a laundry list of Bush administration social policies from immigration to housing to AIDS.

"There's a problem and the powers that be need to address it," said Amos Hough, who's with New York City AIDS Housing Network. "Instead of spending $40 million on this convention, they should have taken the money and housed the homeless."

The actual convention cost could be closer to $60 million; a similar amount was spent on last month's Democratic convention in Boston.

In a related development, the National Lawyers Guild complained about delays of up to 30 hours in processing some protesters arrested on minor charges. About 500 people have been arrested in convention-related protests, 254 of them during the massive rally Sunday.

New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne attributed the delay to demonstrators who refused to identify themselves.

New York commuters, meanwhile, had their first encounter with the bastion-like security that pervades Manhattan.

Police and National Guard troops searched commuter trains before they entered Penn Station, the nation's busiest rail station, which is located under Madison Square Garden. Large numbers of police officers patrolled subway stations, tunnels, bridges and other strategic locations around the metropolitan area.

About 10,000 New York police officers, working 12-hour shifts, were deployed around Penn Station and the Garden.

Many New Yorkers were inconvenienced, and many took it in stride.

"Things were a little bit slower," Ada Fitzgerald, 24, said as she got off the subway in Penn Station. "But I have to say I'd rather have them (the police) here than not. It's reassuring."

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(Merzer and McCaffrey reported from New York. Knight Ridder correspondents Lori Aratani, Stephanie Arnold and Tina Moore, all in New York, and William Douglas, traveling with President Bush, contributed to this report.)

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© 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.