Republicans salute Bush in convention opener
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-31 08:52

US Republicans opened their four-day national convention on Monday with salutes to President Bush's wartime leadership and repeated reminders of his aggressive response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

At an opening session in New York, Republicans frequently invoked the memory of the attacks and described them as the proving ground where Bush had become a strong and decisive commander in chief.

"In this city George W. Bush confronted one of the greatest tests of leadership ever to face a president," Marc Racicot, chairman of Bush's campaign, told delegates in New York's Madison Square Garden. "Under President Bush, we have a safer, more hopeful America."

Lt. Col. Joseph Repya(Ret.) from Eagan, Minnesota, leads the Pledge of Allegiance at the prime time program of the 2004 Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York, August 30, 2004.  [Reuters]

The gathering is in New York, less than four miles from the gaping hole where the World Trade Center once stood, in part to showcase Bush's leadership after the attacks.

Bush, on a week-long tour of key swing states on his way to his arrival in New York on Wednesday, told a rally in New Hampshire he was filled with "absolute determination and resolve" to defend the United States.

"You know where I stand: I believe that we must never yield," Bush said at an event in Nashua.

Convention delegates approved a conservative, nonbinding party platform that endorses constitutional bans on gay marriage and abortion and vigorously defends Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq. They drew an implied contrast with Bush's Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

"While others may hesitate and equivocate, the Republican Party will support our president as he makes America and the world stronger," said Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, chairman of the platform committee.

Republicans began the convention in an upbeat mood, with a flurry of new polls showed Bush gaining ground and slightly leading Kerry nationally and in several key swing states.

Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in the hall to chants of "Four more years!" Cheney watched as he and Bush were nominated for second terms and the states began a roll call vote that will conclude on Wednesday.

On the streets outside, the pace of protests slowed dramatically after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through the city's streets on Sunday.

Tom Roepke, a New York City public school teacher, sunbathes next to a sign protesting the war in Iraq on the Great Lawn in New York's Central Park on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004, the day before the start of the Republican National Convention.  [AP]

SEPT. 11 TRIBUTE

Monday's evening session will be highlighted by a tribute to Sept. 11 victims and appearances by two party leaders who appeal to moderates, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"He has been tested and has risen to the most important challenge of our time, and I salute him," McCain said of Bush in prepared excerpts of his speech released by the campaign.

Three victims' relatives will address the convention on Monday and Giuliani, who has been hailed for guiding the city through the aftermath of Sept. 11, is expected to focus on that day, its consequences and Bush's reaction.

Giuliani, McCain and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will appear on Tuesday, are the stars in a lineup of moderate speakers designed to soften the party's conservative image and show a more inclusive face to swing voters in key states.

"In choosing a president, we really don't choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal. We choose a leader," Giuliani said in his prepared remarks.

"And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision," he said, comparing Bush's fight against terror to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's battle with Nazi Germany and U.S. President Ronald Reagan's opposition to the Soviet Union.

McCain, who lost to Bush in a bitter Republican presidential primary struggle in 2000, has become Bush's regular campaign trail companion and will join him at events on Tuesday and Friday.

"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 said in prepared excerpts.

Kerry was on vacation in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and ceding the spotlight to Bush for most of the week, but his vice presidential running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, condemned Bush's foreign policy in a speech in Wilmington, North Carolina.

"For 50 years, our presidents have led America down this strong and peaceful path. Until now, until this president," Edwards said in his prepared text. "We have seen what this administration's approach does to our standing in the world. It isolates us. It costs us respect from our allies."