Hating President Bush?

CBSNews.com producer Jarrett Murphy is reporting from Boston this week.

With the Boston Harbor as a backdrop, the topic at Tia's on the Waterfront's Americans for Democratic Action luncheon on Monday was "regime change." The target, there and across Boston, was President Bush.

Rep. Jerome Nadler, D-N.Y., warned that if Mr. Bush is re-elected and appoints conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court, "You will not have liberty in this country," and compared some Bush policies to those of King George III. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., warned of an impending draft.

Closer to the FleetCenter, the sardonic pro-Kerry troop "Billionaires for Bush" was demonstrating on behalf of "their man," the president. Another demonstrator near the convention site accused Mr. Bush of maintaining a climate of fear. In the North End, activists were pushing passersby to "run against Bush."

The night before, one of a group of delegates leaving a welcoming party wondered why the press wasn't talking more about the Bush daughters' legal troubles, a fatal care accident involving Laura Bush and purported flaws in the president's father's war record.

At the Democratic National Convention, it's no surprise that people want to beat the president. But do they hate him?

"Absolutely," said Ernie Esposito, a delegate from Johnston, Pa. "He's going around telling everybody the economy is great. How can it be great when there are 17 percent more food pantries now than they ever had - 35 million people hungry, starving of hunger."

"Maybe a little," said Harvey Morse, a former Boston cop who relocated to Georgia and was at the convention as a guest, "because of the war."

"There's a lot of hatred of Bush which I'm not accustomed to seeing among the Democrats, this real, strong hatred of the president," said Bostonian John Hinckey of Run Against Bush.

But Maxine Goldstein of Georgia, a former state and national committee member who is at her 10th convention, disagreed. She was wearing a hat warning Americans not to "gamble with their future" and a pin featuring a picture of Mr. Bush reading "1000 points of light. One dim bulb."

"I don't hate him," she said. "I don't think the Democrats hate him. I think they anxiously want to get rid of him."

"I don't think anybody can technically say they hate the president because hate is a very strong word," said Jeanne Sanchez-Bell of Kenosha, Wis., a Kerry delegate.

"I would use a different word. Abhor, maybe?" she asks, and laughs.

While there was disagreement around Boston on Tuesday over whether "hate" was the word, no one denied the very strong emotions that the 43rd president elicits among Democrats. And many people spoke of unprecedented unity among the delegates.

"Something's happening and I do feel that things are being reinvigorated in the Democratic party," said Run Against Bush runner Rachel Powers of Boston.

"It was enthusiastic in Los Angeles. It's more determined here," said Wisconsin delegate David Wille. "I think the damage done the last four years and the fear of what's going to happen to in four more years is scary."

One thing that fuels Democrats' strong feelings about President Bush is how he was elected four years ago.

"There's still the fallout from what happened in the election, in Florida especially, the illegitimacy of not only his selection but of the foreign policy direction he's taken us," said Jonathan Fox of Lancaster, Pa.

For Bridgette Buyea, a Washington delegate and native of the Philippines, the 2000 election brought back memories of a repressive homeland.

"When Gore lost in 2000, I feel like our vote was stolen," she said. "And since I came from a country that lived under the 20-year dictatorship of Marcos, I know what it is for a powerful people to steal their votes. We give our life to vote. We walk miles to vote."

Another factor is the war. Peggy Walker of Madison, Wis., said she feels "a sense of betrayal, that they believed him, especially about Iraq.

Hinckey notes that Republicans hated President Clinton, yet Mr. Bush is not facing impeachment despite "getting away, literally, with murder."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is one who sees the Democrats as unusually unified, but not hateful.

"People hate dogs. People hate cats. There's always some people who hate anything," Frank said. "It's more fear of what will be the result of the policies."

Gan Gulan, an MIT student at a protest where people wore hoods like those seen at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, said "the Bush administration has almost based its survival upon maintaining a climate of fear an making sure voices that are not their own are not being heard," although Gulan is also unhappy with Kerry.

At the Billionaires for Bush event, "Monet Oliver D'Place," a.k.a. Marco Ceglie of New York, said billionaires don't understand the hate.

"Just because we've profited and gained such power at the expense of the middle and working class doesn't mean they should resent us," he said, in character.

And just because they hate the war doesn't mean people single out Mr. Bush for harsh words. Keith, a 10-year Army veteran who served in the Gulf War and was in special operations for four years, who has a brother in Baghdad and another in Afghanistan, and whose father was MIA in Vietnam, was at protests Sunday and Monday. He was reluctant to give his last name. Some of his military work was classified, he said.

He sees no difference between the major candidates.

"I just want my brothers back. I've lost friends, relatives," he said. "I hope someone makes the right decision to bring them all back."

By Jarrett Murphy