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.

---

Even some top-tier Democrats are saying they thought Dick Cheney's re-nomination speech was "very effective." One reason: the quality of Cheney's voice - what radio pros refer to as voice "timbre" - is among the best in American politics.

It's a deep, resonant baritone, a quality generally regarded in radio and television land as "reassuring and credible." It worked well with the "mature, calm" tone he adopted, one decidedly lacking in political rah-rah.

Those who saw the advance text of Dick Cheney's speech seemed unanimous in their opinion of what the money line would be: "America sees two John Kerrys." But Cheney - whose oratorical style may have lapsed too much into mellowness midway through his address -swallowed the line, and it didn't get the response it might have in the convention hall.

Nevertheless, Cheney - or his speechwriter - couldn't have summed up any better the central problem that may be facing the Kerry campaign - in part due to effective G.O.P. attacks, and in part due to its own missteps.

The preponderance of polling "internals" shows that the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has hurt Kerry's standing in some key areas, with its ads and in a bestselling book.

We don't know yet how Wednesday night's Zell Miller-Dick Cheney one-two punch will affect the relative standings of Kerry and Bush (keep in mind, there is a school of thought that these kind of shots have a recoil potential - something about which Team Kerry is keeping its fingers crossed, and something which the Republicans no doubt hoped to mitigate by having Democrat Miller man the bazookas).

But recent and ongoing shakeups in the Kerry campaign are a good sign that there is worry there, and that it is probably well-placed. In politics, a sign of trouble can be trouble enough.

Latest word is: Paul Begala probably won't be joining the campaign, after all. We'll see. Again, by Thursday night, the dust will most likely have settled in the Kerry camp.

But the more interesting question about all this may be: Will all this sound and fury signify anything? It's far too early, and far too close a race, to trot out the old line about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. But how about: Will changes in the captain's tower, will cries of "Iceberg!" bring about any significant change in course?

The Republican faithful here in New York, who have been giving each other the proverbial high-fives over recent poll numbers and how the convention has gone so far, would probably like to know…and what they soon may discover is, for at least the short term, Team Kerry seems determined to stay its current course. Word is that the first of the news ads that Kerry will run as part of his big, new $45-million advertising buy will be positive.

---

In Boston, there was great anticipation leading up to Kerry's closing-night speech, and how he would perform, because he was a relative unknown to the national audience.

There has been less of this in New York, regarding Bush, given that he could not possibly be better known than he already is. When it comes to big political moments, the president has generally risen to the occasion but in the past year he has also had his clunkers, such as the State of the Union, which got some of its harshest reviews from those in his own party - on style points, mostly - but it's not as if style doesn't count.

So whatever gains the Bush-Cheney ticket has made in this convention are probably up to President Bush to secure or squander in his Thursday night address. Indications are that he will give the convention version of a State of the Union - which is to say, he'll likely strive to accentuate a measured, presidential vision of himself and give over a good portion of his speech to rolling out the new policy proposals (and tax cuts?) America can expect if only voters give him and his team four more years.

Right now, the Republican machine seems to be rolling along pretty well. But how it will move down the immediate road from New York will almost certainly depend less on strategy and this convention's first three days than it will on the candidate and his latest hour in the national spotlight.

---

Didja notice? Congressman Tom DeLay, who represents a suburban Houston district, has been nowhere near the convention spotlight this week. DeLay, although he is not Speaker of the Republican-controlled House, is widely regarded as the most powerful person in the House of Representatives and no worse than the fourth or fifth most powerful in the whole government (behind only the President, Vice-President and maybe - maybe - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, because she so consistently has the president's ear).

DeLay is a darling of the hard Right, nicknamed "The Exterminator" because he once ran a home exterminating business and because he is a no-mercy-style street brawler against opponents inside and outside of his own party as well as the media.

He is reported to have been working major contributors dawn to midnight this convention week, "quiet as a spider" in the words of one his admirers.

---

Lest we forget, and speaking of contributors…these modern national conventions are vast fund-raising extravaganzas. A leading professional Republican fundraiser told your reporter Wednesday: "Even I cannot believe how many cash cows are being milked, and for what large amounts, here."

This person described "two contributors who already had given a lot," writing new checks for "well over a million dollars each" while partying in New York. These contributions are said to be for "527" style organizations (which have helped Kerry so much…and which have also underwritten the Republican "Swift Boat" attack operation that has done such damage to the Democratic candidate).

"We were slow off the mark and have been behind on this kind of thing," said the GOP fund-raising honcho, "but, in no small part thanks to this convention, we're now catching up in a hurry."

---

And, finally…Hot Tip or Hot Air? - It's a question asked here at the beginning of the week regarding word that Mitt Romney's speech could be "the surprise of the convention." Well, the results are in, and now we can make a definitive ruling on that question: Hot Air. It's not that it was a bad speech - it wasn't. But it was in no way a surprise, or a revelation, either in its content or style.

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