Kuchana
08-31-2004, 11:37 AM
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-08-30-convention-rdp_x.htm?csp=1
Mrs. Bush takes center stage tonight
From staff and wire reports
NEW YORK — First lady Laura Bush, in a rare foray into foreign policy Tuesday, planned to present her husband as a commanding warrior against terrorism in a prime-time convention speech highlighting his leadership in "the most historic struggle my generation has ever known."
Laura Bush, who never wanted to give political speeches, highlights tonight's convention.
By Mike Simons, Getty Images
On a night when the convention's overarching theme was to be compassion, the first lady chose to address "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."
In excerpts of her speech released Tuesday morning, Mrs. Bush says: "I am so proud of the way George has led our country with strength and conviction."
"Our parents' generation confronted tyranny and liberated millions," the first lady says. "As we do the hard work of confronting today's threat — we can also be proud that 50 million more men, women and children live in freedom today thanks to the United States of America and our allies."
Twin daughters Jenna and Barbara, 22, late additions to the podium lineup, are to introduce their mother.
"I think you'll see a very personal side to their remarks, a little bit of humor," said Susan Whitson, deputy communications director for the Bush campaign.
Four years ago, at the GOP convention in Philadelphia, Mrs. Bush delivered a warm testimonial to her husband, telling delegates her husband's values won't waver "with the winds of polls or politics." Four years earlier, Elizabeth Dole, wife of GOP nominee Bob Dole, spoke of her husband's humility and honesty, describing the unpublicized occasions when he has done things for the less fortunate.
In 1992, after the first Persian Gulf War, then-first lady Barbara Bush used her convention speech to chatter about her husband George and about raising kids. She talked about den mothering, carpooling, Little Leaguing. The focus was anything but waging war.
This time, Mrs. Bush says her goal was to "answer the question that I believe many people would ask me if we sat down for a cup of coffee or ran into each other at the store: You know him better than anyone — you've seen things no one else has seen — why do you think we should re-elect your husband as president?"
Her answer to delegates: Bush's vision for a safer world, explaining, "we are living in the midst of the most historic struggle my generation has ever known. The stakes are so high."
Mrs. Bush made the rounds of the morning news shows in advance of her Madison Square Garden appearance.
"I'm going to talk about the vantage point that I have being so close to him and what I've seen over the last four years and how important it is to re-elect him and how these times demand somebody with his personality and his resolve and his character," she said on ABC's Good Morning America.
Mrs. Bush defended her husband's comment that the war on terror can't be won, saying, "this isn't a war with a country where you're going to have a surrender at some point, but the fact is, as we look around the world, we are already winning the war on terror."
A day after those comments, Bush reversed himself Tuesday in a speech to the American Legion, saying, "We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win."
The first lady is seen as a potent political weapon for her husband, who often tells audiences that the best reason to vote for him is that a re-election victory means four more years of Laura Bush.
Two-thirds of voters have a favorable opinion of the first lady and 12% have an unfavorable view, recent polls show. Just over half have a favorable view of the president and more than 40% have an unfavorable one.
Before her convention speech, Bush was to address Republican women, with a joint introduction by her daughters. The twins have only recently begun campaigning for their father.
"We really protected them in every way we could before, in every other campaign," Mrs. Bush said on NBC's Today. "We never used them in any political ads."
The recent college graduates are taking an active role now because it is their father's last campaign, she said.
"Now that they are almost 23 years old, they really wanted to be involved," she said. "They told us that they didn't want to tell their children when they were grown up that they never worked in any of his campaigns."
Mrs. Bush has appeared beside her husband during his past campaigns, but she is now spending more time at the campaign podium than ever before.
Also speaking tonight are California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R.-N.C., Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. and Education Secretary Rod Paige
On Monday, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona both praised the president at length, saying Bush's continued leadership was essential to America's future.
At the same time, they belittled Democratic nominee John Kerry as offering a weaker, wavering and uncertain alternative in perilous times.
In his remarks, Giuliani recalled the attacks of Sept. 11 that seared his city as well as the nation.
"At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Without really thinking, spontaneous, I grabbed the arm of then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and I said to him, 'Bernie, thank God George Bush is our president.' And I say it again tonight." (Related item: Text of Giuliani's prepared remarks | Video of Giuliani)
Giuliani said Bush proved his mettle in the response to terror. "For that — and then his determined effort to defeat global terrorism, no matter what happens in this election — President George W. Bush already has earned a place in our history as a great American president," he said. (Related items: Moderates feel alienated | Analysis: Not his father's GOP)
The former mayor delivered a slashing attack on Kerry as unable to match Bush's vision, leadership and decisiveness.
"President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is. John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision," Giuliani said.
Setting aside past differences and bitterness from their 2000 primary campaigns, McCain, the Arizona Republican, saluted Bush's "determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place." He said the president has earned the job by leading a battle against terrorism.
McCain delivered a strong defense of Bush's decision to invade Iraq and topple dictator Saddam Hussein, despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction that the administration asserted he possessed and was a primary rationale for the war. (Related items: McCain praises Bush | Text of McCain's prepared remarks | Video)
"It's a big thing, this war," McCain said. "It's a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God's love for every soul on earth. It's a fight between right and wrong, good and evil."
"I believe as strongly today as ever the mission was necessary, achievable and noble," McCain said. "For his determination to undertake it, and for his unflagging resolve to see it through to a just end, President Bush deserves not only our support but our admiration."
Without naming him, McCain also delivered an attack on filmmaker Michael Moore, whose Fahrenheit 9/11 movie is sharply critical of Bush's leadership and motives for going to war. In his remarks, McCain referred to "a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls."
The line was greeted with roars of approval. Moore, who is writing a convention column for USA TODAY and was in Madison Square Garden when McCain spoke, raised his arms as the crowd chanted, "Four more years."
RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie gaveled the convention to order at 10 a.m. Monday. An early session Monday was dedicated in part to official business, including formally placing the names of Bush and Cheney into nomination for the GOP ticket and approving the party platform, as well as a series of short speeches from GOP officials and candidates. (Link: GOP platform (PDF file)
Contributing: William M. Welch of USA TODAY and The Associated Press
Mrs. Bush takes center stage tonight
From staff and wire reports
NEW YORK — First lady Laura Bush, in a rare foray into foreign policy Tuesday, planned to present her husband as a commanding warrior against terrorism in a prime-time convention speech highlighting his leadership in "the most historic struggle my generation has ever known."
Laura Bush, who never wanted to give political speeches, highlights tonight's convention.
By Mike Simons, Getty Images
On a night when the convention's overarching theme was to be compassion, the first lady chose to address "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."
In excerpts of her speech released Tuesday morning, Mrs. Bush says: "I am so proud of the way George has led our country with strength and conviction."
"Our parents' generation confronted tyranny and liberated millions," the first lady says. "As we do the hard work of confronting today's threat — we can also be proud that 50 million more men, women and children live in freedom today thanks to the United States of America and our allies."
Twin daughters Jenna and Barbara, 22, late additions to the podium lineup, are to introduce their mother.
"I think you'll see a very personal side to their remarks, a little bit of humor," said Susan Whitson, deputy communications director for the Bush campaign.
Four years ago, at the GOP convention in Philadelphia, Mrs. Bush delivered a warm testimonial to her husband, telling delegates her husband's values won't waver "with the winds of polls or politics." Four years earlier, Elizabeth Dole, wife of GOP nominee Bob Dole, spoke of her husband's humility and honesty, describing the unpublicized occasions when he has done things for the less fortunate.
In 1992, after the first Persian Gulf War, then-first lady Barbara Bush used her convention speech to chatter about her husband George and about raising kids. She talked about den mothering, carpooling, Little Leaguing. The focus was anything but waging war.
This time, Mrs. Bush says her goal was to "answer the question that I believe many people would ask me if we sat down for a cup of coffee or ran into each other at the store: You know him better than anyone — you've seen things no one else has seen — why do you think we should re-elect your husband as president?"
Her answer to delegates: Bush's vision for a safer world, explaining, "we are living in the midst of the most historic struggle my generation has ever known. The stakes are so high."
Mrs. Bush made the rounds of the morning news shows in advance of her Madison Square Garden appearance.
"I'm going to talk about the vantage point that I have being so close to him and what I've seen over the last four years and how important it is to re-elect him and how these times demand somebody with his personality and his resolve and his character," she said on ABC's Good Morning America.
Mrs. Bush defended her husband's comment that the war on terror can't be won, saying, "this isn't a war with a country where you're going to have a surrender at some point, but the fact is, as we look around the world, we are already winning the war on terror."
A day after those comments, Bush reversed himself Tuesday in a speech to the American Legion, saying, "We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win."
The first lady is seen as a potent political weapon for her husband, who often tells audiences that the best reason to vote for him is that a re-election victory means four more years of Laura Bush.
Two-thirds of voters have a favorable opinion of the first lady and 12% have an unfavorable view, recent polls show. Just over half have a favorable view of the president and more than 40% have an unfavorable one.
Before her convention speech, Bush was to address Republican women, with a joint introduction by her daughters. The twins have only recently begun campaigning for their father.
"We really protected them in every way we could before, in every other campaign," Mrs. Bush said on NBC's Today. "We never used them in any political ads."
The recent college graduates are taking an active role now because it is their father's last campaign, she said.
"Now that they are almost 23 years old, they really wanted to be involved," she said. "They told us that they didn't want to tell their children when they were grown up that they never worked in any of his campaigns."
Mrs. Bush has appeared beside her husband during his past campaigns, but she is now spending more time at the campaign podium than ever before.
Also speaking tonight are California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R.-N.C., Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. and Education Secretary Rod Paige
On Monday, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona both praised the president at length, saying Bush's continued leadership was essential to America's future.
At the same time, they belittled Democratic nominee John Kerry as offering a weaker, wavering and uncertain alternative in perilous times.
In his remarks, Giuliani recalled the attacks of Sept. 11 that seared his city as well as the nation.
"At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Without really thinking, spontaneous, I grabbed the arm of then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and I said to him, 'Bernie, thank God George Bush is our president.' And I say it again tonight." (Related item: Text of Giuliani's prepared remarks | Video of Giuliani)
Giuliani said Bush proved his mettle in the response to terror. "For that — and then his determined effort to defeat global terrorism, no matter what happens in this election — President George W. Bush already has earned a place in our history as a great American president," he said. (Related items: Moderates feel alienated | Analysis: Not his father's GOP)
The former mayor delivered a slashing attack on Kerry as unable to match Bush's vision, leadership and decisiveness.
"President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is. John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision," Giuliani said.
Setting aside past differences and bitterness from their 2000 primary campaigns, McCain, the Arizona Republican, saluted Bush's "determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place." He said the president has earned the job by leading a battle against terrorism.
McCain delivered a strong defense of Bush's decision to invade Iraq and topple dictator Saddam Hussein, despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction that the administration asserted he possessed and was a primary rationale for the war. (Related items: McCain praises Bush | Text of McCain's prepared remarks | Video)
"It's a big thing, this war," McCain said. "It's a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God's love for every soul on earth. It's a fight between right and wrong, good and evil."
"I believe as strongly today as ever the mission was necessary, achievable and noble," McCain said. "For his determination to undertake it, and for his unflagging resolve to see it through to a just end, President Bush deserves not only our support but our admiration."
Without naming him, McCain also delivered an attack on filmmaker Michael Moore, whose Fahrenheit 9/11 movie is sharply critical of Bush's leadership and motives for going to war. In his remarks, McCain referred to "a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls."
The line was greeted with roars of approval. Moore, who is writing a convention column for USA TODAY and was in Madison Square Garden when McCain spoke, raised his arms as the crowd chanted, "Four more years."
RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie gaveled the convention to order at 10 a.m. Monday. An early session Monday was dedicated in part to official business, including formally placing the names of Bush and Cheney into nomination for the GOP ticket and approving the party platform, as well as a series of short speeches from GOP officials and candidates. (Link: GOP platform (PDF file)
Contributing: William M. Welch of USA TODAY and The Associated Press