Friday, September 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevadans call speech effective

Supporters of President Bush watch his televised speech Thursday during a party hosted by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., at the Hot Rod Cafe in Henderson. From left are Joseph Buky, Ann Maddalon, Laura Buky and Jackie Buky. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

NEW YORK -- Nevada delegates on Thursday said President Bush effectively set the stage for a final two-month showdown in Nevada.

They said he successfully defended the war in Iraq and attacked Sen. John Kerry's policies while offering just enough economic talk to draw independent voters to his side.

Bush directly tied the war in Iraq to the terrorist attacks of 2001, saying Saddam Hussein had rebuked international efforts to determine whether he was creating weapons of mass destruction. Without a response from Saddam, Bush said, he had to act.

"Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country?" Bush said. "Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time."

State Republican Chairwoman Earlene Forsythe said those remarks refocused the issue of the war on terrorism. And while the bulk of the speech dealt with that war, Forsythe said she believed the economy will speak for itself in Nevada.

"The economy in Nevada is probably the most important thing that we have to look at," Forsythe said. "And when you look at it, we're the fastest-growing in the nation.

"He's going to have to promote it in the state, but it is an issue he can win on," she added.

Protesters created disturbances inside Madison Square Garden at least three times Thursday night. Initially, delegates booed the protesters, all of whom were removed immediately. The crowd quickly resorted to chants of "four more years," with the Nevada delegation screaming along.

Nevada delegates wore white mesh hats with a blue "Nevada" band. They were seated behind the Texas delegation, with their cream-colored cowboy hats.

What might have appeared to be bad floor seats on a map proved to be a great position for the Nevada delegation, which was seated less than a dozen rows in front of the presidential box.

Presidential brother Neil Bush passed by a few minutes before the convention began, drawing as many oohs and ahs as The New York Times' picture Thursday of Nevada delegates Steve Martin and Ellie Lopez-Bowlan.

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval even had a baseball card of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, which he carried in his pocket in hopes that he would get close enough to the former president to get an autograph.

Before the speech, some said they had hoped Bush would address his domestic policies, including the economy, jobs and health care.

"There's a lot of people who think he's been a single-issue president," state controller and delegate Kathy Augustine said. "A lot of people have thought that his focus has been all war all the time."

Bush mentioned plans to increase funding for job training, rein in health-care costs through liability reform and give Americans more choices about how to spend and invest their money.

"In all these proposals, we seek to provide not just a government program, but a path: a path to greater opportunity, more freedom and more control over your own life," he said.

He made passing reference to proposals he said will increase the amount of affordable housing, reform the tax code and spark economic development in states hit hard by job losses or in poor neighborhoods that have not rebounded.

Bush said Kerry's call to revoke the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is politics as usual.

"His policies of tax and spend, of expanding government rather than expanding opportunity, are the policies of the past," he said. "We are on the path to the future, and we are not turning back."

The message passed muster with delegates who earlier in the day had hoped for more specific economic talk. Many said Bush inherited a recession and suffered the devastating effects of Sept. 11, 2001, and corporate scandals on his watch and would need another term to see the effects of an improving economy.

Nevada delegates spent some of the convention's last day with officials stressing the importance of getting out the vote in the Silver State.

"Nevada will make the difference in 2004," Ruben Barrales, deputy assistant to the president, said during a breakfast meeting.

North Carolina's junior senator, Elizabeth Dole, urged delegates to focus on Kerry as someone who waffles on issues for political expediency.

She said Kerry television ads should carry the disclaimer: "I'm John Kerry, and I may or may not approve this message."

Dole described Bush as someone who delivered on his 2000 campaign promises to bolster the military and restore accountability to the educational bureaucracy.

"Character is still king," she said. "People respect George Bush as a man of his word. He means what he says, he says what he means."

Brian Scroggins, a Las Vegas delegate, said he thinks the Republican National Convention will prove more successful in courting voters back home than was the Democratic convention in July.

"John Kerry was given the opportunity to define who he is and where he stands on issues, and he failed," said Scroggins, chairman of the Clark County GOP. "Republicans are doing just the opposite. We've been very specific about who President Bush has been, and with John Kerry, we still have questions."

Augustine said she has been told that Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney or their surrogates will visit Nevada 14 times before the election.

"This is good for the state," she said. "For so long, Nevada has been taken for granted as a dumping ground."

About 15 Republicans for Kerry met Thursday night in Las Vegas to work the phones on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket.

Organizer Mike Moody, a former president of the Republican Men's Club, said the coalition had about 50 people pledging to volunteer for the Kerry campaign.

"Las Vegas is a cosmopolitan city now, it's not Bible Belt, and this Republican convention has put faith ahead of the issues moderate Republicans and independent voters want to hear."

Joe Planck, 60, a Vietnam Navy veteran and retired Clark County firefighter, said he will vote for his first Democrat for president this year.

"I just don't like the way Bush is leading the country, and I especially don't like the smear attacks about (Kerry's) military record," Planck said.

GOP delegate Eileen Rice, a Zephyr Cove resident and registered nurse, said Republicans in her Lake Tahoe community are solidly behind Bush.

Before the president's speech, Rice said she had been surprised that the convention did not focus on health care.

Bush's renewed push for medical liability reform came in a brief mention but drew huge applause from Rice.

"That's a real issue in Nevada, with nursing shortages and medical malpractice," she said.

About 60 different convention-watching parties took place throughout Nevada on Thursday, designed to draw new voters into the Bush-Cheney campaign.