Not only was Hurricane Gustav slowing Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain’s big convention party, it was also sparing him from Democratic criticism that his election would amount to a third Bush term.
Convention organizers held a truncated business-only session on Monday and scrapped a planned speech by US President George W. Bush.
The absence of the president, whose nationwide approval ratings hover at about 30 percent, did not deter a crowd of as many as 10,000 protesters who marched to the convention hall, chanting anti-war slogans and holding signs criticizing Bush and the war in Iraq.
PHOTO: EPA
Police made a reported 284 arrests during the protest rally and march.
The rally started at the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul and climaxed with a march past the nearby Xcel Center.
The crowd for the demonstration, including a variety of left-wing groups, was estimated at 10,000 people, far short of the 50,000 that rally organizers had hoped for, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on its Web site.
Authorities in the Twin Cities said that nearly half the people arrested could face felony charges.
The afternoon rally was peaceful at first. What were described as smaller groups of more hostile demonstrators were later rounded up by police, and St Paul city officials called in reinforcements from the Minnesota National Guard.
Broken windows blamed on the protesters were reported at a department store and bank
As Hurricane Gustav slammed the Gulf coast on Monday, an unofficial bipartisan ceasefire prevailed, with most Republicans and Democrats pulling their punches.
Normally, Republican speakers this week would be extolling the virtues of McCain and trying to define his Democratic rival Senator Barack Obama as a liberal who would raise taxes.
Instead, the conclave in Minnesota turned to raising money for Gustav victims, with US first lady Laura Bush and McCain’s wife Cindy leading the charge.
Democrats arrived in St Paul looking to attack McCain just as the McCain team had lashed out at Obama all last week at Obama’s nominating convention in Denver. McCain is to be formally nominated by the Republicans today as the party’s candidate to face Obama in the Nov. 4 election.
The Democrats’ message is that McCain offers “more of the same” as Bush, the two-term leader whose handling of Hurricane Katrina three years ago was widely criticized and contributed to his approval rating of about 30 percent.
While McCain was missing out on a chance to define Obama for the American people, he was also not having to endure criticism about appearances by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who both canceled trips to St Paul to speak.
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