Dan Rather's Convention Journal

CBS News Anchor Reports From The Republican Gathering

(CBS)  CBS News Anchor Dan Rather offers personal insight and observations from the Republican National Convention.

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Tuesday night, in prime time, the Republican convention went on its charm offensive - with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and first lady Laura Bush or, as they are known to the delegates in the hall, Arnold and Laura.

Wednesday may well feature more partisan red meat of the sort we heard from Monday night's featured speakers but for the moment - and for America's first look at the convention on network broadcast television - it was time to accentuate the positive.

One thing that these first two days have really driven home is: While the Democrats have more movie stars on their side, the Republicans have more political stars - and, in Gov. Schwarzenegger, they have a potent blend of both.

Was a lot of his speech given over to talking about himself? Absolutely, and that was exactly the point: it was a celebrity endorsement of the Grand Old Party, complete with convincing personal testimonials (even if his implicit crediting of the Republicans with standing by Nelson Mandela and the Tiananmen Square movement seems a bit of a reach, at best).

A recent book called "What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" examines the reasons that a lot of blue-collar, heartland people - who the author believes would be better served by Democratic policies - consistently vote Republican instead.

One reason might be that Democrats don't give speeches like the one delivered by Schwarzenegger to the delegates in New York - one that systematically set out positions popular with many (if not most) voters…and identified them with his chosen party.

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It's become a truism of political conventions in the television age that what the speakers say on stage - at least during prime time - is at least as much for the benefit of those watching at home on television as it is for those watching and listening in the hall. But seldom has that division of purpose been as much in evidence as it was Tuesday night, as first daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush enthused about the band OutKast for a mostly befuddled audience in Madison Square Garden - their intended target audience being, presumably, any MTV-generation voters that the GOP might pick up on the margins.

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With all the attention paid last month to Teresa Heinz Kerry's "shove it" remark as the Democratic convention was getting under way, it seems only fair, now, to give a closer listen and look to President Bush's much more substantial - and potentially consequential - conflicting statements over whether the war on terrorism can, ultimately, be won.

It seems a case where President Bush's has taken (whether intentionally or not) the more nuanced rhetorical approach to the war on terrorism favored by his critics at home and abroad, and that has given the president's political opponents an opening that they have not hesitated to try to exploit.

We're constantly hearing that Washington in general and this White House in particular inject politics too much into policy…but, as this example shows, one steps back from politics at one's own peril.

So, instead, days later, we once again get unqualified guarantees of American success - now from both the Republican and the Democratic tickets. It's said that a country gets the politics and the political leaders it deserves…can anyone now look to this episode and dispute it?

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While Team Bush celebrates the gains of August in New York, Team Kerry appears to be in turmoil. Tuesday brought the official announcement that former Bill Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart has joined the Kerry campaign as a senior adviser, and more staff changes seem to be in the works. Right now, change is the operative word, as indications from the Kerry camp are that no one will be fired.

So who might be hired? Could a clue be found in the Wall Street Journal Web site column of Al Hunt, who compares Kerry's situation now with that faced by Clinton in 1992 before he turned the ship over to James Carville?

Signs are that Carville - the recent co-author of a memo pointing out Kerry polling losses since the Democratic convention - is unlikely to join the campaign full time. But there is also some talk of Carville associate and former Clinton communications honcho Paul Begala potentially playing some role. Either way, word is that we'll know the extent of any current shake-up by Thursday - in time for the wrap-up of this convention and the start of the post-Labor Day sprint to Nov. 2.

And in another measure of the urgency now being felt by the Kerry team, the campaign also made a major advertising buy, spending $45 million (of the $75 million in federal election funding it has available until Election Day) on spots to run in 10 key states.

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So, meantime, how is the GOP convention going? If the reviews from Bush-Cheney's opponents are any indication, it seems to be going very well indeed. Then again, it should be remembered that Team Bush had their spin-doctors manning phones constantly during the Democrats' gathering in Boston. It seems that ceding the political stage to the opposition during the parties' respective conventions is not just a thing of the past: it is rapidly becoming a thing of the distant past.

One of the marked differences between the Republicans' convention and the Democrats' is tone. The Democrats were hardly as "positive" as the general buzz would have one believe but their critiques of the Bush administration - implicit and explicit - were downright coy compared to some of the unmistakable barbs we've heard from the stage at Madison Square Garden.

This, correspondingly, may lead to yet another change in the Kerry campaign, which is said to be considering changing its tone to a more strident one, and sooner rather than later. Look for him to jump all over President Bush's line that the situation in postwar Iraq was a victim of U.S. "catastrophic success in the early going."

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Dreamer update: Seems that Rudy Giuliani has sent out a trial balloon on his dreams, reportedly telling the Iowa delegation that he was considering a presidential run in 2008…and, in a measure of the former New York Mayor's current stature within the G.O.P., he was conspicuously seated next to Vice President Dick Cheney for Tuesday night's proceedings.

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Finally, from our Hot Tip Department, tonight's Blue Plate Special: Team Bush is not, repeat not, completely and finally committed to three presidential campaign debates - at least not yet.

The so-called independent commission that has settled into running the debates in recent years has announced that three debates are scheduled this fall for Bush and Kerry, with one set for the vice-presidential candidates. And debate "moderators" have been named. But a tip bird has told CBS News "there is a school of thought inside upper reaches of the Bush campaign that two, rather than three, face-to-face showdowns with Kerry would be better for their candidate."

The thinking of Bush insiders allegedly favoring this view is said to go along these lines: Have one debate on foreign policy, one on domestic affairs and that's it. Can the quasi-"public forum," "town-meeting"-style planned third debate. Too dicey.

Under this scenario, longtime Bush family friend and master debate arrangements negotiator Jim Baker of Houston (former White House Chief of Staff, Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State during the Reagan and Bush I years, plus leader of Team Bush's successful drive to fight off Al Gore's challenge to Florida election results) might be brought out of retirement and his teaching at Rice University to obfuscate, delay and negotiate concerning final debate plans…and, especially if Bush opens any kind of significant lead in the polls, insist upon two rather than three debate appearances.

At the moment, it's only a theory - sheer speculation or, if you will, an educated guess.

Rather's Journal: New York, Day One
Rather's Journal: New York, Day Two