Republicans Launch Convention Barrage at Kerry

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

NEW YORK - Republicans launched the sharpest attacks of their convention against Democrat John Kerry on Wednesday, with Vice President Dick Cheney saying November’s election would be a "defining moment" in the country’s long-term security.

Cheney said in published excerpts of his evening speech that President Bush’s first term had created "years of achievement," but there were vital differences between Bush and his Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

"Moments come along in history when leaders must make fundamental decisions about how to confront a long-term challenge abroad and how best to keep the American people secure. This nation has reached another of those defining moments," Cheney said.

"On the question of America’s role in the world, the differences between Senator Kerry and President Bush are the sharpest, and the stakes for the country are the highest."

In the harshest speech of the convention, keynote speaker Zell Miller, a Democratic senator from Georgia who is backing Bush, said Kerry would be a weak and "dangerous" commander in chief.

"Sen. Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations," said Miller, who 12 years ago delivered a keynote speech at the Democratic convention. "Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide."

Miller linked Kerry with his fellow senator from Massachusetts, liberal Edward Kennedy, and said that for more than 20 years, "on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure."

Kerry, at a morning appearance before the nation’s largest veterans’ group, offered a tough critique of Bush’s leadership on the war and what Kerry said was a failure to make any plans for peace in Iraq.

"When it comes to Iraq, it’s not that I would have done one thing differently, I would have done everything differently," Kerry said in Nashville, Tennessee, in a speech to the American Legion.

The nomination of Bush for a second four-year term sets up a two-month race to the Nov. 2 election that polls show is essentially a dead heat. Bush has gained ground on Kerry in recent weeks and taken a slight lead in several surveys.

The president’s leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has become the centerpiece of his re-election campaign, and Republicans have reminded voters of his war on terror and the campaign in Iraq throughout the convention.

"I will never relent in defending America, whatever it takes," Bush told a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, after recalling the moment when he stood in the rubble of the World Trade Center and vowed to fight back.

But Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, said Bush had failed to prepare for a post-war Iraq or secure the country’s borders against outside insurgents. The president’s go-it-alone approach had increased the burden on the U.S. military and budget, he said.

HUMAN CHAIN

Outside the convention hall, about 5,000 people formed a symbolic unemployment line from Wall Street to the Madison Square Garden convention site to highlight the jobs lost under Bush as protests continued on the third day of the convention.

Security inside the hall was breached when AIDS activists briefly interrupted a speech by White House chief of staff Andrew Card to young Republicans, including Bush’s twin daughters.

After Bush’s campaign appearance in Ohio he headed to New York, where his visit with firefighters and supporters in Queens was briefly beamed into the convention hall before he returned to his hotel to watch Cheney’s speech.

Republicans held a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, who died in June, with a video montage and a speech by his son, Michael Reagan.

Cheney, a powerful adviser and supporter of the Iraq war within the administration but a reluctant campaigner, will get a chance to make his case for war to a broad audience with his address.

The appearance will give many Americans their first extended view since 2000 of Cheney, whose support for war and past ties to Halliburton and the oil industry have made him a lightning rod for Democratic critics.

The convention formally nominated Cheney for a second four-year term as vice president on Wednesday, shortly after concluding the roll call of states to nominate Bush. The president will give his acceptance speech on Thursday.

Miller hammered Kerry for what he said was a failure to support U.S. troops and a number of expensive weapons systems over the years. Kerry, he said, "wants to re-fight yesterday’s war. George Bush believes we have to fight today’s war and be ready for tomorrow’s challenges."

Explaining his switch of loyalties, Miller said "today’s Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator." (Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Grant McCool, Greg Frost, Michele Gershberg, Gail Appleson)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6129912