Vice President Dick Cheney unleashed a stinging attack on Senator John Kerry Wednesday night, ridiculing him as a politician who has made a career out of changing his mind. "More wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure," agreed Senator Zell Miller, a Democratic keynoter at the Republican National Convention.
The vice president hailed President George W. Bush as a "superb commander in chief" who has helped restore the economy and will lead the nation to victory in the war on terror. Bush "does not deal in empty threats and half measures," Cheney added in a prime-time speech to delegates and a nationwide television audience.
Republicans launched their double-barreled attack on Bush's Democratic opponent as the president campaigned his way into the convention city, collecting the endorsement of the union representing New York's 8,600 firefighters, some of whom risked their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. His eyes misted as he stood among them and held a black fire helmet labeled "Commander in Chief."
"Four more years," they shouted -- echoing the chants that floated up from the convention floor at Madison Square Garden as delegates acclaimed the Bush-Cheney ticket for another term.
Bush and Kerry are virtually tied in recent polls. The election is Nov. 2.
The speeches by Cheney and Miller were the main events of the evening, but the convention seemed to move 20 years back in time as delegates took in a tribute to Ronald Reagan, who died earlier this year. They cheered at video clips of the late president at his most forceful, then again when they saw former President George H.W. Bush eulogizing him in June. The convention floor bloomed with thousands of blue placards that read "Win One for The Gipper."
Cheney performed the traditional vice president's role in his turn at the podium, praising the man at the top of the ticket while denigrating the leader of the political opposition. "Time and again he has made the wrong call on national security," the vice president said of Kerry.
"On Iraq, Senator Kerry has disagreed with many of his fellow Democrats," Cheney said. "But Senator Kerry's liveliest disagreement is with himself. His back and forth reflects a habit of indecision, and sends a message of confusion."
With two months remaining in a close election, and the pool of undecided voters a small one, Republicans relished the opportunity to place a Democrat out front at their convention. They had their man in Miller, a conservative ex-Marine who minces no words and delivered a keynote address a dozen years ago in the same hall in service of Democrat Bill Clinton.
"In this hour of danger our president has had the courage to stand up. And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him," the Georgia lawmaker said.
Outside the heavily defended hall, police watched warily as demonstrators waving pink slips formed a line three miles long in Manhattan to protest the Bush administration's economic policies. Fewer than a dozen arrests were reported, one day after police took into custody more than 1,000 demonstrators who had threatened to march on the convention hall.
A small group of AIDS activists managed to penetrate the Garden itself during the morning, before the convention session had begun for the day. They blew whistles and chanted, "Bush kills," at a morning session of GOP youth before being hustled from the floor.
Kerry ended a brief stint on the campaign sidelines, defying tradition by making an appearance while his rival's national convention was in progress.
"Extremism has gained momentum" as a result of administration missteps in Iraq, the Democratic nominee told a national convention of the American Legion, before adding that the war on terror is a winnable one with the right policies in place.
"When it comes to Iraq, it's not that I would have done one thing differently, I would have done almost everything differently" than the president, Kerry said.
Republicans took care to stipulate they weren't questioning the patriotism of Bush's rival, who won five military medals in the Vietnam War.
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