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As reported to The Punch in Lagos, Nigeria, September 6, 2004
NEW YORK — As you move from street to street, read the newspapers and sample the opinions of people across races, religions and professions, you get this picture very clearly: the greatest critics of the war in Iraq are U.S. citizens. They advance the following reasons for rejecting the war: the continuous pumping of billions of dollars in executing the war and sustaining the troops, the increasing number of U.S. soldiers killed and the U.S. economy, which is perceived by many as not doing so well.
For members of the ruling Republican Party, these are definitely trying times, because at the center of these criticisms stands their presidential flag bearer — George W. Bush — the incumbent U.S. president. The challenge is how best to sell him to voters and get him re-elected on the party’s platform for another four-year term. The opposing Democratic Party and its candidate, Mr. John Kerry, by their manifesto look set to offer the people just what they want: get out of Iraq and give priority to fixing the economy.
Interestingly, political parties in the U.S. do not change their incumbent candidates after their first term in office, except when the candidate personally declines to re-contest. If Bush were a Nigerian leader, his fate would probably be decided by party members as tens of candidates would have submitted their credentials for the position.
“What the party convention targets is to energize the delegates, educate them better, foster unity and arm them sufficiently to go back to their bases and stir up members and voters to return Mr. Bush as president by November,” said David Caputo, president of Pace University here and a member of the Republican Party.
“It is a highly targeted campaign to foster unity and unite a party and country seen to be divided by the war in Iraq,” he added.
This is the first Republican National Convention ever held in New York City. The choice was strategic, as New York suffered most of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was one of those chosen to market the president and re-unite citizens during the convention. “These are times when leadership, not ideals, is most important,” he stressed in his opening speech.
“In choosing a president, we really don’t choose a Republican or a Democrat, a Conservative or Liberal. We choose a leader. And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision. There are many qualities that make a great leader, but having strong beliefs, being able to stick to them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader,” Giuliani said.
“Since September 11, 2001, President Bush has remained rock solid on the war against terrorism. It doesn’t matter what the media does to ridicule him or misinterpret him. He sees world terrorism for the evil that it is. John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision.”
Giuliani also depicted Kerry as an inconsistent personality incapable of providing leadership for the United States. According to Giuliani, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Kerry voted against the Persian Gulf War, but later said he actually supported the war.
“Then in 2002, as he was calculating his run for president, he voted for the war in Iraq. And then just nine months later, he voted against an $87 billion supplemental budget to fund the war and support our troops. He even at one point declared himself anti-war and now says he’s pro-war and at that rate, with 64 days left, he still has time to change his position at least three times,” Giuliani told delegates.
Some polls in the country suggest that while most Americans do not favor Bush, they are uncertain Kerry is an alternative capable of defending them in times of war. Kerry has made it the rule to change his position, rather than the exception, they say.
For example, he reportedly told an Arab-American Institute in Detroit that a security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian territories was a “barrier to peace.” Later, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, he said, “Israel’s security fence is a legitimate act of self defense.”
Already, Kerry’s Vietnam War record, which helped him capture the Democratic presidential ticket, was being smeared in mud by some veterans of the war and critics who dismissed it as fraught with lies.
Preceding the convention there was a mass protest in Manhattan by rights groups carrying flag-draped coffins, fly swatters bearing President George W. Bush’s image and dogs painted pink for peace. It was a stunning depiction of U.S. democracy and freedom of expression, as protesters demanded a total pull-out of the U.S. armed forces from Iraq and new leadership at the White House.
The crowd was exuberant, raucous and, with a few exceptions, peaceful. An estimated 130,000 people participated in the demonstration and most observers that it was the largest-ever protest at a national political convention. The police were very cooperative, patient and tolerant and there were no reports of major violence. Some 200 people were arrested but most were later discovered to be simple miscreants and pickpockets.
The presidential election will be held on November 2, enough time perhaps for the two candidates to convince voters which of them can better protect Americans.
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Notebook
By Louis Iba, WPI '04