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Monday, Aug. 30, 2004

McCain's comments came as Republicans gathered at Madison Square Garden for the start of their national convention. Bush and his supporters are expected to use the convention, the first for the GOP in this Democrat stronghold, to lay out a second-term agenda that reaches out to moderate Democrats and independent voters.

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  In fact, most of the prominent speakers - McCain, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who speaks Tuesday - are far more politically moderate on social issues than most convention delegates. Democrat Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia gives the keynote address on Wednesday.

McCain, who served more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said he was disappointed that a war that ended three decades ago had become a major issue in this year's presidential campaign.

"I've spent the last 30 years trying to heal the wounds of that war, and now they're being ripped open again," he said in an interview on CBS's "The Early Show."

A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, made up of men who served on the same vessels as Kerry in Vietnam, has been running harshly critical ads questioning the U.S. senator's leadership qualities and claiming he embellished his record to receive military awards.

"I think these ads are dishonest and dishonorable," McCain said.

However, he said, Kerry's prominent role in the anti-war movement after he returned from Vietnam should be questioned. Kerry led a veterans group opposed to the war and, during Capitol Hill testimony, said U.S. soldiers committed atrocities with their commanders' approval.

"What John Kerry did after the war is very legitimate political discussion," McCain said.

Vice President Dick Cheney again said the Bush campaign had no role in the Swift boat ads, which he said he has not seen. Cheney received deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, and the vice president said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that lack of military service should not be "prohibitive by any means" for potential leaders in wartime.

The opening of the convention in the city that felt the brunt of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history came a day after more than 100,000 people protesting Bush's Iraq and domestic policies swarmed past Madison Square Garden, where the president will accept the party's nomination for a second term on Thursday.

The convention opens with polls showing Bush and Kerry in a virtual tie. The first day was intended to focus on Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism, with a tribute to families of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and speeches by McCain and Giuliani.

"In choosing a president, we really don't choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal," Giuliani said in prepared remarks that compared Bush with Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. "We choose a leader. And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision."

But a far different message was delivered Sunday on the streets of Manhattan by protesters who filled 20 city blocks, many chanting "No More Bush" and "No More Years" and bearing anti-war and anti-Bush banners. Some carried flag-draped, coffin-shaped boxes meant to draw attention to a U.S. death toll in the Iraq war that is approaching 1,000.

Police gave no official crowd estimate. One official put the size at over 120,000, although it took nearly five hours for the procession to pass Madison Square Garden. Organizers put the number at some 400,000. In all, about 100 arrests were reported, with no major outbursts of violence.

Republicans were gathering about four miles north of Ground Zero, where two hijacked planes destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people died there, at the Pentagon and at a crash site in Pennsylvania.

Republicans, encouraged by recent polls that show Kerry losing some ground to Bush in areas such as leadership and national security, pressed their monthslong efforts to portray him as weak on national defense and as a waffler.

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, sought to counter the GOP efforts to portray Bush as a strong leader. "We have seen what this administration's approach does to our standing in the world. It isolates us. It costs us respect from our allies. It means we must face these new challenges alone," Edwards said in remarks prepared for a speech Monday in Wilmington, N.C.

"After months of saying he'd done everything right on Iraq and foreign policy, the president acknowledged just the other day that he miscalculated the way in which he waged the war in Iraq. He believes that he may have won the war too quickly and that was a miscalculation," Edwards added.

'Catastrophic Success'

In an interview with Time magazine, Bush suggested he had underestimated the struggle in postwar Iraq. Bush called the swift military offensive that led to the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 "a catastrophic success" because fighting continues to this day despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.

Bush arrives Wednesday after a tour of eight battleground states. He'll spend one night in New York before returning to the campaign trail.

Laying low while Republicans command the spotlight, Kerry spent Sunday at his beachfront home in Nantucket, Mass., and was remaining there until he addresses the American Legion in Nashville on Wednesday. Bush talks to the veterans' convention on Tuesday.

The names of Bush and Cheney were to be placed in nomination for second terms on Monday and an alphabetical state-by-state roll call begun that will be spread out over several nights.

There are 2,509 voting delegates and a candidate needs a simple majority to be nominated. GOP officials say Bush and Cheney will likely clinch the nomination on Tuesday night.

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