GOP spotlights Bush's compassionate side, offers hopeful message "Don't be economic girlie men"
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Special to ST. MARY'S TODAY by KRT photos	First Lady Laura Bush Special to ST. MARY'S TODAY by KRT photos

By Ron Hutcheson

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

NEW YORK - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and first lady Laura Bush showcased President Bush's softer side at the Republican convention Tuesday on a night that presented a sunny contrast to Monday's emphasis on the war on terror.

Hoping to win over swing voters, immigrants and women, Day Two of the Republican National Convention offered a message of hope and optimism during a time of war and economic difficulty.

"Ladies and gentlemen, America is back!" Schwarzenegger told delegates gathered just blocks away from the barren spot that once anchored the World Trade Center's twin towers. "Back from the attack on our homeland, back from the attack on our economy, back from the attack on our way of life."

Schwarzenegger's heartfelt tribute to his adopted homeland brought the crowd to its feet, but the night was also a Bush family affair. In their first high-profile campaign appearance, the 22-year-old twin Bush daughters, Jenna and Barbara, introduced a televised appearance by their father, who spoke to the delegates via satellite from a campaign event near Gettysburg, Pa.

The twins used their own youthful escapades to poke fun at their father's exploits as a young man.

"We kept trying to explain to my dad that, when we were young and irresponsible, well, we were young and irresponsible," Jenna joked, reviving a phrase that her father used to deflect questions about his youthful hijinks.

The twins' father spent the day trying to counter any suggestion that he harbors doubts about the outcome of the war on terrorism.

"We may never sit down at a peace table, but make no mistake about it: We are winning and we will win," Bush said at an American Legion convention in Nashville.

His comments were intended to quiet a flap that started Monday, when Bush seemed to suggest in a taped television interview that America could never declare victory against terrorism.

"I don't think you can win it," he told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview taped last weekend. "But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."

Later Tuesday, Bush expressed regrets about his televised comments during a chat with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

" I should have made my point more clear about what I meant," Bush told Limbaugh. "What I meant was that this is not a conventional war. ... I probably needed to be a little more articulate."

Democratic spokesman Phil Singer said Bush has "gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible" in discussing the war on terrorism.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, taking a break at his home on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, left it to his running mate to react to developments in New York. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the vice presidential nominee, took offense at Republican criticism.

"All they could do was attack," Edwards said in a statement released by the campaign in West Virginia, where he was campaigning. "You know why? Because they don't have a plan to create jobs, to fix health care, or win the war on terror."

On the streets of New York, the uneasy truce between police and protesters ended with a series of angry confrontations and several hundred arrests. Protesters confronted Republican delegates outside their hotels and tried to disrupt convention-related events with sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience.

Tension escalated when police blocked throngs of protesters who tried to march to Madison Square Garden without a permit. Police reported more than 600 arrests as the demonstrations stretched into the night, bringing the total number of convention-related arrests to more than 1,100.

While Bush talked tough on the campaign trail and chatted up his "good friend" Limbaugh, his supporters in New York put the focus on education, health care, AIDS, breast cancer and other domestic issues. The podium lineup at Madison Square Garden featured two of the nation's most popular Republicans - an actor-turned-politician who craves the limelight and a former librarian who initially shunned public life.

Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder who shelved his acting career to enter politics, cited his personal history as evidence that the American dream is alive and well. The high-profile convention speech marked his political debut on the national stage, and Schwarzenegger made the most of it.

He made light of his acting career, even as he mined it for effect. He urged Americans to stay upbeat about their country and its economy.

"To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don't be economic girlie men," he said.

Schwarzenegger, whose foreign birth makes him ineligible to run for president, also offered an emotional tribute to his adopted home. He recalled his boyhood in Austria, where his family lived in fear of the Soviet troops who occupied part of the country and where Schwarzenegger dreamed of moving to America.

"Everything I have - my career, my success, my family - I owe to America," he said. "In this country, it doesn't make any difference where you were born ... That's why I believe in this country, that's why I believe in this party, and that's why I believe in this president."

During an earlier visit to a New York firehouse, Schwarzenegger displayed some of the characteristic earthiness that sometimes gets him in political trouble. He told the firefighters that he admires the "balls you have to do the jobs you do."

Schwarzenegger, who downplays his Republican Party ties in Democratic-leaning California, differs with Bush by supporting abortion rights and opposing a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Standing before an audience filled with social conservatives, he assured his fellow immigrants that the Republican Party welcomes a wide range of views.

"To my fellow immigrants listening to night, I want you to know how welcome you are in this country," he said. " Maybe, just maybe, you don't agree with this party on ever single issue. ... Here we can respectfully disagree and still be patriotic, still be American and still be good Republicans."

In contrast to Schwarzenegger, a polished performer, Laura Bush came reluctantly to her high-profile political role. Before marrying Bush in 1977, she extracted a promise that she would not have to give political speeches.

The pledge was quickly forgotten, as was her commitment to jog with Bush. This year, she and her daughters are campaigning like never before.

She offered a personal look at her husband's anguish over sending troops into battle.

"I remember some very quiet nights at the dinner table," she said. "And I remember sitting in the window of the White House, watching as my husband walked on the lawn below. I knew he was wrestling with these agonizing decisions that would have such profound consequences for so many lives and for the future of our world."

The Republican delegates took care of one important piece of official business Tuesday by formally nominating Bush. The Pennsylvania delegation had the honor of putting Bush over the top in a roll call vote that started Monday night.

Bush will accept the nomination on Thursday, after a Wednesday lineup that features Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Zell Miller, a conservative Georgia Democrat who is breaking with his party to back Bush.

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© 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.