GOP Leaders Hail Their Chief

Two of the Republican Party's biggest stars – Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain – lauded President Bush as a strong, decisive wartime leader on the opening night of the Republican National Convention. "We need George Bush more than ever," Giuliani said.

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor whose calming of a wounded city after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 won him almost heroic status, hailed the president as "a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts."

By contrast, he belittled Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as a politician "whose record in elected office suggests a man who changes his position often even on important issues."

McCain swept aside his long-running differences with Mr. Bush and urged voters to re-elect him, offering a stout defense of Mr. Bush's decision to invade Iraq as the only way to keep that country from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

"Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war," McCain said. "It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents."

Earlier, Republicans kicked off their four-day gathering at New York's Madison Square Garden by adopting a platform that endorses the president's agenda. Delegates also officially placed the names of Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in nomination for a second term in the White House.

Invoking the memory of Sept. 11, Giuliani recalled the day the president stood atop a pile of rubble at Ground Zero and vowed to avenge the attacks. He likened Mr. Bush to Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill for holding fast to his convictions in the face of ridicule.

Mr. Bush "sees world terrorism for the evil that it is," Giuliani said. "John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision."

Absent from McCain's remarks were any criticisms of Kerry, a friend. He also omitted any references to the Vietnam War, which has become an issue in this year's campaign because of the contrast between Kerry's service there and Mr. Bush's time in the Texas National Guard at the height of the war.

McCain said the debate over Iraq and terrorism "should remain an argument among friends who share an unshaken belief in our great cause, and in the goodness of each other."

"I don't doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends," McCain said. "And they should not doubt ours."

McCain said Mr. Bush has earned re-election because of his resolute actions since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

"He has been tested and has risen to the most important challenge of our time, and I salute him," McCain said.

"I salute his determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place," McCain continued. "He has not wavered. He has not flinched from the hard choices. He will not yield. And neither will we."

While McCain's tone was mostly conciliatory, he criticized Michael Moore, whose documentary film "Fahrenheit 9-11" attacks Mr. Bush over Iraq and has been popular with liberal audiences. Without mentioning Moore by name, McCain called him "a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace."

As cameras panned to where Moore was seated in the arena, the crowd booed loudly and began to chant, "Four more years, four more years."

First Lady Laura Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger headline Tuesday night's convention lineup.

The first lady's topic Tuesday night will be "the compassion of the American people."

"Mrs. Bush is going to offer her personal perspective on the president's leadership over the last four years," said her spokesman, Gordon Johndroe.

Laura Bush has appeared beside her husband during his past campaigns, but is now spending more time at the campaign podium than ever before.

"It's a wonderful privilege to be able to travel around our country and to meet people all over our country," the first lady told CBS News Early Show Co-anchor Harry Smith. "The part that I was reluctant about when George decided to run was the criticism that I know comes in politics.

"You know, that's hard. That's always hard for anybody who loves the candidate."

Mr. Bush, meanwhile, campaigned in New Hampshire and triggered an instant campaign furor when he told an interviewer he doubted victory is possible in the war on terror.

"I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create the conditions that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world," he told NBC.

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards quickly labeled that a concession of defeat in the war that terrorists launched in 2001.

"This is no time to declare defeat," said the lawmaker and former top dollar trial lawyer. "It won't be easy and it won't be quick, but we have a comprehensive long-term plan to make America safer... And that's a difference."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan hastened to clarify the president's remarks.

"He was talking about winning it in the conventional sense... about how this is a different kind of war and we face an unconventional enemy," said the president's spokesman. "I don't think you can expect that there will ever be a formal surrender or a treaty signed like we have in wars past."

The convention began with polls showing the president and Kerry in a virtual tie.

Republicans roared voice-vote approval of a party platform that rallies behind Mr. Bush's agenda while endorsing positions dear to conservatives, including backing constitutional bans on gay marriage and abortion.

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

Thousands of police kept the city under tight security as the convention opened.

Protesters, who numbered at least 120,000 during loud but peaceful demonstrations on Sunday, generally gave back the streets of Manhattan to commuters. One group of protesters in oversize Mr. Bush masks and wild costumes heckled convention-goers as they left their hotels Monday morning.