First Lady Hails Bush Anti-Terror Record
NewsMax Wires
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004
NEW YORK -- Republican National Convention co-stars Laura Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger commended President Bush to the country Tuesday night for four more years, hailing him as a man of strength and compassion. "You can count on him, especially in a crisis," said the first lady.
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"He's a man of perseverance. He's a man of inner strength. He is a leader who doesn't flinch, doesn't waver, does not back down," the Austrian-born California governor said, blending high praise for the president with an appeal to recent immigrants to give the GOP a chance.
"We Republicans admire your ambition. We encourage your dreams. We believe in your future," said the actor-turned-politician, one of a series of speakers on an evening scripted to show the softer side of a party known for its conservatism.
Schwarzenegger and the first lady took their turns at the Madison Square Garden podium as 2,508 delegates formally bestowed their nomination on the president for a second term in office. "Four more years," they chanted in unison. The sound system blared the song "Knock on Wood."
Republicans met inside their heavily fortified convention hall as police made more than 300 arrests in the surrounding streets on a day heavy with protests. By evening, authorities wrapped an entire midtown Manhattan block in orange netting, working to contain demonstrators who vowed to march on the Garden itself.
Bush, locked in a tight re-election race, campaigned across three battleground states and worked to extinguish a convention-week controversy of his own making. "In this different kind of war, we may never sit down at a peace table. But make no mistake about it, we are winning, and we will win" the war on terror, he told an American Legion convention in Tennessee, one day after saying he didn't think victory would be possible.
"I probably needed to be more articulate" in earlier comments, he conceded in a radio interview with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
Bush's Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, spent the day at home in Nantucket, Mass., as his campaign settled on plans to place $45 million in television advertising in 20 battleground states through Election Day. The commercials will run on broadcast stations and cable, and include appeals to minority voters whom Democrats need to turn out in large numbers on Nov. 2 if they are to deny Bush a second term.
A poll by The Washington Post showed the race to be a dead heat, 48 percent apiece, but found that the president is moving ahead of his rival on national security issues and pulling into a virtual tie on handling of the economy.
Bush arrives in New York on Wednesday, a day ahead of his nomination acceptance speech that is expected to sketch out a second-term agenda. Vice President Dick Cheney addresses the gathering Wednesday night.
Republican convention planners scripted an evening that reintroduced the theme of compassionate conservatism that Bush ran on successfully four years ago.
A parade of speakers walked onto a podium that bore the words "People of Compassion" as a backdrop. They praised the president's efforts to battle AIDS, combat breast cancer, promote adoption and enact far-reaching educational reforms. "I am proof that the blessings of liberty are within reach of every American," said Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, an African-American.
Personal Glimpse
Both the first lady and Schwarzenegger hailed Bush's leadership in terms that bordered on extravagant in speeches that did double political duty. For the first lady, that meant what aides called a glimpse at the personal side of the commander in chief; for the governor, an attempt to appeal to new and unregistered voters who are not part of the president's conservative base.
"No American president wants to go to war," said Mrs. Bush, neither Lincoln nor Roosevelt nor her own husband.
But in a description of a commander in chief that most Americans never see, she said, "I remember some very quiet nights at the dinner table" after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "George was weighing grim scenarios and ominous intelligence and potentially even more devastating attacks."
"... 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 the future of the world," she said.
The world outside the convention delivered jarring news in the global war on terror.
A suicide bomber was blamed for an explosion near a busy subway station in Moscow. Hamas took responsibility for blowing up two buses in Israel. And a Web site offered a link to a video purporting to show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese construction workers kidnapped in Iraq.
Schwarzenegger sketched his own background for the convention and prime-time audience, from a childhood in the shadow of communism to arrival in the United States as a self-described scrawny boy, to the man who moved from body builder to box-office star to governor of the nation's most populous state.
"America gave me opportunities and my immigrant dreams came true," he said. "I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities."
He flashed his trademark bravado as well. "To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don't be economic girlie men." The hall erupted in cheers at that remark and Schwarzenegger smiled broadly. He had encountered sharp criticism in his home state earlier this year when he ridiculed Democratic legislators who opposed his budget as "girlie men."
Retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who guided U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, was a late addition to the speaking program as the campaign worked to strengthen Bush's claim as a steady commander in chief.
The script also called for something of a Bush family hour, with twins Jenna and Barbara introducing their father the president, who would in turn make remarks by remote hookup to present his wife for her speech.
In her prepared remarks, Mrs. Bush said that Bush's leadership has helped 50 million men, women and children win freedom over the past four years, a reference to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I want to talk about the issue that I believe is most important for my own daughters, for all our families, and for our future: George's work to protect our country and defeat terror so that all children can grow up in a more peaceful world," she added.
Schwarzenegger's praise of Bush echoed his Terminator character mantra of "I'll be back."
"America is back. Back from the attack on our homeland - back from the attack on our economy, back from the attack on our way of life," he said in a reference to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. |
