Convention Focus: War On Terror

Republicans marshaled their forces to bolster President Bush's image as a strong leader in treacherous times as they opened their national convention in the city that felt the brunt of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

The Republican National Convention convened Monday, a day after more than 100,000 people protesting Mr. Bush's Iraq and domestic policies swarmed past Madison Square Garden, where the president will accept the party's nomination for a second term on Thursday.

The convention convened under extremely tight security, with a helicopter hovering overhead and thousands of police posted at barricades. Republicans were paying tribute to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in their opening session.

Normally, a gathering like this would dwell on the accomplishments of a president's first four years and his vision for the next four, but as CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante reported, one main issue will override all the others at Madison Square Garden: the war on terrorism.

The convention's first day was to feature primetime speeches by McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

"In choosing a president, we really don't choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal," Giuliani will say in his speech. Excerpts of Giuliani's address also indicate he will compare Mr. Bush with Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. "We choose a leader. And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision."

But a far different message was delivered Sunday on the streets of Manhattan by protesters who filled 20 city blocks, many chanting "No More Bush" and "No More Years" and bearing anti-war and anti-Bush banners. Some carried flag-draped, coffin-shaped boxes meant to draw attention to a U.S. death toll in the Iraq war that is approaching 1,000.

Police gave no official crowd estimate. One official put the size at over 120,000, although it took nearly five hours for the procession to pass Madison Square Garden. Organizers put the number at some 400,000. In all, about 100 arrests were reported, with no major outbursts of violence.

Republicans were gathering about four miles north of Ground Zero, where two hijacked planes destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people died there, at the Pentagon and at a crash site in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Bush and his supporters were expected to use the convention — the first for the GOP in this Democratic stronghold — to lay out a second-term agenda that reaches out to moderate Democrats and independent voters.

In fact, most of the prominent speakers — Giuliani, McCain and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who speaks Tuesday — are far more politically moderate on social issues than most convention delegates. Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia gives the keynote address on Wednesday.

Republicans, encouraged by recent polls that show Kerry losing some ground to Mr. Bush in areas such as leadership and national security, pressed their monthslong efforts to portray him as weak on national defense and as a waffler.

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, sought to counter the GOP efforts to portray Mr. Bush as a strong leader. "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. It means we must face these new challenges alone," Edwards said in remarks prepared for a speech Monday in Wilmington, N.C.

"After months of saying he'd done everything right on Iraq and foreign policy, the president acknowledged just the other day that he miscalculated the way in which he waged the war in Iraq. He believes that he may have won the war too quickly and that was a miscalculation," Edwards added.

In an interview with Time magazine, Mr. Bush suggested he had underestimated the struggle in postwar Iraq. He called the swift military offensive that led to the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 "a catastrophic success" since fighting continues to this day despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.

McCain defended Bush's decision to go to war, telling CBS' Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith fighting the war in Iraq is crucial to fighting the war on terror.

"We're better off and the world is better off with Saddam Hussein gone," McCain said.

Mr. Bush arrives Wednesday after a tour of eight battleground states. He'll spend one night in New York before returning to the campaign trail.

Laying low while Republicans command the spotlight, Kerry spent Sunday at his beachfront home in Nantucket, Mass., and was remaining there until he addresses the American Legion in Nashville on Wednesday. Mr. Bush talks to the veterans' convention on Tuesday.

The names of Mr. Bush and running mate Dick Cheney were to be placed in nomination for second terms on Monday and an alphabetical state-by-state roll call begun that will be spread out over several nights.

There are 2,509 voting delegates and a candidate needs a simple majority to be nominated. GOP officials say Mr. Bush and Cheney will likely clinch the nomination on Tuesday night.

Cheney and his wife, Lynne, arrived in town on Sunday by way of Ellis Island — a processing center for immigrants a century ago.

With the skyline of lower Manhattan behind him — the twin towers of the World Trade Center conspicuous by their absence — Cheney praised Mr. Bush as "calm in a crisis, comfortable with responsibility and determined to do everything needed to protect our people."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat turned Republican, was greeting delegates at the beginning of Monday's session. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was also addressing the gathering.

Hastert will compare Mr. Bush to two previous presidents from Illinois: Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, and say Kerry is not up to the task, said spokesman John Feehery.