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| U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., waves as he tours the podium at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008. Lieberman is scheduled to speak Tuesday night. |
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- President Bush, relegated to a minor role at the Republican National Convention, praised John McCain Tuesday night as "ready to lead this nation," a courageous candidate who supported the war in Iraq despite risks to his campaign for the White House.
As Bush addressed the convention from the White House - his speech was to last less than eight minutes - Republicans in St. Paul defended McCain's vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin. The governor of Alaska is "from a small town, with small town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family," former Sen. Fred Thompson said in convention remarks released in advance.
He said McCain's decision to place her on the ticket "has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic." In the days since her selection, Palin has disclosed that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, and that a lawyer has been retained to represent her in an unfolding investigation in Alaska into the dismissal of a state employee.
"We need a president who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade," Thompson added.
Bush's remarks, also as prepared for delivery Tuesday night, reprised national security themes that propelled him to re-election in 2004.
"We live in a dangerous world," he said, "And we need a president who understands the lessons of Sept. 11, 2001: that to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen and not wait to be hit again."
Bush's brief cameo was highly unusual for a two-term president addressing his own party's convention as he prepared to leave office. His aides suggested the sequence of events flowed naturally from his decision to travel to Louisiana on Wednesday to see the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav.
But his approval ratings are in the 30 percent range, and with polls making it clear the nation is ready for a change, the McCain campaign indicated there was no need for him to travel to the convention city.
Republicans awarded one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut senator, a prime-time speaking slot Tuesday night as they courted millions of independent voters essential to McCain's presidential hopes.
Bush - not so much.
And Vice President Cheney not at all.
With his dismal approval ratings, Bush was given only a few minutes to speak.
He said that McCain's independence and character had changed history last year at a time Democrats were seeking to "cut off funds for our troops, when he endorsed the decision to deploy thousands of additional troops to Iraq."
"Some told him that his early and consistent call for more troops would put his presidential campaign at risk," Bush said. "He told them he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war."
With little more than two months remaining in the White House campaign, polls show a close race between McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. Each man draws natural strength from his party members, leaving independents as the focus of much of the campaign.
A daily Gallup tracking poll released on Monday showed the candidates basically tied with independents, 31 percent for McCain to 29 percent for Obama. It said 36 percent of those surveyed described themselves as independents. A CBS survey had it 43-37 for Obama, a slight advantage given the margin of error.
One day after a frightening Gulf Coast hurricane prompted a subdued opening to the McCain convention, political combat enjoyed a resurgence.
McCain's aides disputed a claim that vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin had once been a member of a third party - and accused Democratic rival Obama's camp of spreading false information.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that as far as he'd seen, "the only person talking about her being in the Alaska Independence Party is the head of the Alaska Independence Party."
"Their gripe is with those folks," he said of the McCain campaign.
After disclosures that an attorney has been hired to represent Palin in an investigation into an Alaska controversy, and that her unmarried daughter was pregnant, McCain said of his campaign's background checks: The "vetting process was completely thorough and I'm grateful for the results."
In his prepared remarks, Thompson extolled McCain as possessing "the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders. Strength. Courage. Humanity. Wisdom, Duty. Honor."
Well known as an actor for his roles in "Law & Order" and elsewhere, he added that "others were talking reform; John McCain led the effort to make reform happen."
After a political time-out of sorts on the convention's opening day, when Hurricane Gustav threatened New Orleans, Republicans repackaged what had been four days of speechmaking into three.
The schedule calls for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to give the convention's keynote speech Wednesday, the same evening delegates deliver the party's nominations to McCain and Palin. The 72-year-old presidential hopeful delivers his acceptance speech before a prime time audience of millions on Thursday.
The newly minted ticket is scheduled to leave the convention city on Friday for an eight-week sprint to Election Day.
The decision to place Lieberman out front on the convention's second night capped an unprecedented political migration. Only eight years ago, he stood before a cheering throng at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and accepted the nomination as Al Gore's running mate.
In the years since, he lost badly in 2004 when he sought the Democratic presidential nomination, lost a Democratic nomination for a new term at home in Connecticut in 2006, then recovered quickly to win re-election as an independent.
Back in the Senate, his vote allows the Democrats to command a narrow majority, yet he has been one of the most outspoken supporters of the war in Iraq. He has traveled widely with McCain in recent months, and occasionally has angered Democrats with remarks critical of Obama.
"I'm not going to spend any time tonight attacking Sen. Obama," he said in a pre-speech interview with CNN. He said his objective was to explain "why I am an independent Democrat voting for Sen. McCain."
McCain and his aides insisted Palin had been checked out thoroughly, and there was little evidence they were concerned about her.
"I haven't seen anything that comes out about her that in any way troubles me or shakes my confidence in her. All it has done for me is say she is a human person with a real family," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was McCain's rival during the battle for the party nomination.
Protesters outside the hall vowed to resume demonstrations that turned violent on Monday and resulted in 286 arrests.
