NEW YORK – President Bush’s (search) compassionate conservatism will take center stage Tuesday night as Republicans kick off day two of their convention in New York City.
The "Compassion of the American People" theme will be espoused by first lady Laura Bush (search), Education Secretary Rod Paige and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) as they take the podium at Madison Square Garden.
Schwarzenegger, who emigrated from Austria with virtually nothing to become a world-famous bodybuilder and actor, will tell his personal story of living the American dream, and will help spread the party's message of compassion and hope.
"I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities," he said in excerpts of his speech released Tuesday. "And I believe they can. That's why I believe in this country, that's why I believe in this party and what's why I believe in this president."
"America is back," he said, in a line reminiscent of his slogan from the "Terminator" movies: "I'll be back."
Asked which GOP values were of benefit to Schwarzenegger, Bush-Cheney campaign aides on Tuesday cited hard work, low taxes and the assumption of individual responsibility. When asked to what extent the president and the governor will campaign together, in and out of California, an aide said the governor's people have been approached but no plans of yet were in the works.
The popular governor gets star billing on the second day of the party's convention as the GOP extends its outreach to moderate Democrats and independents. When questions were raised about Schwarzenegger's disagreements with the platform, aides responded that the fact the governor is a primetime speaker reflects "the maturity of our party."
"There is no effort to masquerade the positions of the platform," one campaign aide stated flatly. The aides argued that putting figures with disparate views onstage was "something the other party wouldn't do."
Barbara and Jenna Bush, the president's 22-year-old twin daughters, will introduce their father who is in Pennsylvania. Then, President Bush will introduce the first lady. Senior campaign officials said the young women will be making their first live appearance before a national audience. The twins have had extensive personal involvement in the drafting of their statement.
They will speak about five minutes. "I think you'll see a very personal side to their remarks, a little bit of humor," said Susan Whitson, deputy communications director for the Bush campaign.
Afterward, the first lady will come to the podium.
In 2000, Laura Bush's convention appearance was designed to provide a biographical framework for the nominee. This time around, the first lady's role will be to speak, from her uniquely personal perspective, about how the president approaches making the difficult decisions of his presidency.
In excerpts of her speech released Tuesday morning, Mrs. Bush saluted "George's work to protect our country and defeat terror so that all children can grow up in a more peaceful world."
"I am so proud of the way George has led our country with strength and conviction," she said.
Mrs. Bush will invoke the memory of her father's generation, and how it rose to the occasion to defeat fascism. She will assert today's generation is doing the same thing so that her daughters can grow up in a freer world. One administration aide said her remarks will prove "more expansive than you would think would come from a first lady."
Paige, who rose from segregated Mississippi to become the nation's first black education secretary, will speak to the achievements the administration claims in the field of education. However, his term has been a bumpy one since he drew anger from teachers for labeling the National Education Association a "terrorist organization."
Republicans also added to the convention schedule retired Gen. Tommy Franks (search), former commander of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, who will speak Thursday night.
Meanwhile, protests continued Tuesday around the city. Fourteen people were detained near Wall Street for blocking morning traffic. Another six protesters were arrested for wearing masks in a Harlem subway station, authorities said. More than 500 people have been arrested in convention-related protests since late last week.
About 25 people bathed themselves in stacks of fake $100 bills and grunted through plastic pig snouts in a demonstration outside the hotel where Texas Republicans were staying for the GOP convention. The demonstrators called themselves employees of "Hallibacon" and accused Republicans and Halliburton (search) — the Texas-based oil services company that Vice President Dick Cheney once headed — of profiting from the war in Iraq.
Remembering the Terrorist Attacks in New York
Tuesday's lineup, which will focus on domestic policy, is in contrast to Monday's theme of "Courage of a Nation," which extolled the virtues of Bush as wartime leader.
"Since September 11, President Bush has remained rock solid," former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Monday night, likening the president to Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan. "We need George Bush more than ever."
Giuliani, who was mayor of the city hardest hit by the terror attacks, credited Bush with making the world safer and giving America hope.
"They have heard from us. They heard from us in Afghanistan and we removed the Taliban. They heard from us in Iraq and we ended Saddam Hussein's reign of terror," Giuliani said. "So long as George Bush is president, is there any doubt they will continue to hear from us until we defeat global terrorism? We owe that much and more to those loved ones and heroes we lost on Sept. 11."
Democrats and some Sept. 11 victims say Republicans are politicizing a national tragedy. Giuliani denied that, saying Democrats made frequent mention of Sept. 11 at their convention last month in Boston. He said if Republicans did not cite Bush's response to the tragedy, it would be like President Abraham Lincoln not mentioning the Civil War when he ran for re-election in 1864.
"He has been tested and has risen to the most important challenge of our time, and I salute him," Arizona Sen. John McCain said of Bush. "I salute his determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place. He has not wavered. He has not flinched from the hard choices. He will not yield. And neither will we."
The major component of Monday night's theme focused on the idea that America didn't ask for war, but the country couldn't sit by and do nothing in response to Sept. 11.
"We didn't ask for this war, but faced with an evil whose only mission is to destroy our country ... we had to respond," said former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
McCain stressed that both America and its commander in chief have a responsibility to see the current wars to their end.
"Our enemies have made clear the danger they pose to our security and to the very essence of our culture ... liberty," the former Vietnam POW said. "Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war. Like all wars, this one will have its ups and downs. But we must fight. We must."
McCain did not single out Democratic candidate John Kerry, a good friend, for criticism.
But what brought down the house was McCain's reference to film director Michael Moore - who wrote and produced the popular documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," an excoriating look at the Bush administration and his motives for invading Iraq. Moore has been one of Hollywood's most vocal Bush critics.
"Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents.
"And certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls."
As McCain made reference to Moore, the audience turned toward the director who was in the convention hall and loudly booed him and chanted "four more years." In response, Moore chuckled, clapped and said "two more months." At one stage he made the "L" sign with his thumb and forefinger, meaning "loser."
As the convention launched under extremely tight security, delegates cheered and danced to a variety of songs, including an array of musical show tunes. The evening closed out with a taped rendition of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." The entire Texas delegation was dressed in long-sleeved blue button-up shirts and cowboy hats.
"We will never forget, we will never forgive, we will never excuse," actor Ron Silver said in reference to the Sept. 11 attacks, receiving a thunderous round of applause and cheers from convention-goers waving red, white and blue signs that read "We Salute Our Troops."
Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director of the American Islamic Congress and native of Iraq, thanked Bush and the United States for getting rid of Saddam and liberating Iraq from the former dictator’s clutches.
"Yes, there is still bloodshed and uncertainty - but America, under the strong, compassionate leadership of President Bush, has given Iraqis the most precious gift any nation has ever given another: the gift of democracy and the freedom to determine its own future," Al-Suwaij said. "I promise you: We will never forget what your sons and daughters did for us."
Also in attendance Monday night were Bush's parents, President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, twins Barbara and Jenna Bush, the president’s nephew, George P. Bush, and Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynn.
And It's Official … Almost
Delegates from Pennsylvania, one of the top battleground states, were expected to formally put Bush over the top for the GOP nomination at around 7 p.m. EDT Tuesday, convention officials said.
There are 2,508 voting delegates and a candidate needs a simple majority to be nominated. The state-by-state roll calls began on Monday and is expected to last until Wednesday at the latest. Bush and Cheney’s names were officially submitted Monday.
The president won't arrive until Wednesday. He'll spend one night in New York and accept the GOP nomination before bolting for the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Ohio and beyond.
FOX News' James Rosen and Liza Porteus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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