[Bill Hemmer, Cnn Anchor:] Time to look ahead now to tonight's convention session. That rolling roll call, as it's called here, for the states and then the Bush nomination will resume. And, Bill Cheney rather, Dick Cheney, he'll speak tonight, accepting the vice presidential nomination. CNN's Kate Snow, outside the First Union Center to talk about Dick Cheney and more now. Hey, Kate.
[Kate Snow, Cnn Correspondent:] Hi, Bill. Dick Cheney will be speaking tonight, Governor George W. Bush is already here, as you know, and he will be listening. He intends to stay back at the hotel and listen from there, not make an appearance here at the convention. But who knows what will happen tonight. Now you remember the scene in the movie "Rocky," Bill, where Rocky ran up the steps of that big Philadelphia art museum and raised his hands in air. Well that is where George W. Bush just appeared a few moments ago, creating his own victorious moment of sorts, side by side with his former rival Senator John McCain. There they were, appearing for one of the first times together, and talking about how they intend to campaign together. They were at this event for Latino voters, George W. Bush, of course, appealing to that contingent. He said over and over again "juntos polemos," "together we can." George W. Bush, of course, speaks Spanish. He used quite a bit of that in his short speech. It was a rally with Latino theme. It was geared with entertainment from Latino performers, also an appearance from George P. Bush, the son of Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and his wife. He is a Mexican-American, has made quite a number of appearances on behalf of the Bush campaign, very appealing to some of the younger Hispanic voters. On his arrival here in Philadelphia, Governor Bush said that this campaign and this convention will be focused on the positive.
[Gov. George Bush , Presidential Candidate:] Guess what's going to happen come November? This campaign is going to take a campaign that is positive and hopeful and optimistic to the people. We're a campaign of ideas, and the American people are going to respond. If all goes well, you are looking at the next president of the United States.
[Snow:] Now Bush was greeted at the airport by historical figures, among them a Benjamin Franklin look-alike, he shook his hand. He rang a replica of the Liberty Bell, rang it three times before leaving to go to that Latino rally. Later today he will come here where we are, at the First Union Center. He will go inside, have a look around, do sort of a walk- through of what he plans to do tomorrow night with his big speech to the convention. Bill, back to you.
[Hemmer:] All right, Kate, thanks for the update, outside the First Union Center, Kate Snow there. Three of our political analysts, joining us now to talk about Bush, the convention and Republican hopes for the fall campaign: Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for "USA Today" with us, far right there; Rich Lowry with the "National Review"; and Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of the "Atlanta Constitution." Good morning to all you.
[Susan Page, "usa Today":] Good morning.
[Cynthia Tucker, "atlanta Constitution":] Good morning.
[Hemmer:] This is like "CROSSFIRE" times three. Time for us to get riled up, in the words of John McCain, we saw McCain just 15 minutes ago. Susan, why don't you start us off there. Pretty good indication right now, 12 hours after his speech, he's back there with George Bush?
[Page:] He's on board and he got a good reception here last night. But I think there was actually some disappointment among the people who supported him. And he didn't mention an issue that was a signature of his own campaign; which was campaign finance reform. We see how much control the Bush campaign has over this convention. He didn't mention campaign finance reform. On the first night, Colin Powell didn't mention abortion rights, although he did four years ago, they are avoiding conflict here at any cost.
[Hemmer:] Which kind of goes with the whole package, we'll talk about that more in a second. Rich, go ahead.
[Rich Lowry, "national Review":] Well, it's also in McCain's interest, obviously, if he has ambitions in the Republican Party in the future, to be as supportive as possible. And that's what we saw last night where he did everything but genuflect before George W. Bush. And it was I thought his speech was extremely eloquent, his writer, Mark Salter, is one of the most talented writers in the Republican Party. But it was odd, it wasn't just campaign finance reform that was missing, it was any policy at all. And I think the thinking behind that was McCain wants to connect with these delegates and a lot of policies he supports, like campaign finance reform, are extremely unpopular to these delegates. So he kept it all at the level of generalities.
[Hemmer:] Jump in here.
[Tucker:] Well, let me echo what Rich just said. It was an eloquent speech but it definitely had its odd moments. What did McCain mean, for example, when he said at the very end "I'm haunted by the future?" did he mean by that that I'm haunted by specter of a Bush, George W. Bush presidency. Also, there were a couple of things that I thought implicitly sent the wrong message about George W. Bush. For one thing, McCain said: We want to inspire Americans, by being an American is about more than just materialism. Well, the fact of the matter is that George W. Bush was born into a wealthy family. The other thing is all the strong emphasis on patriotism, patriotism, patriotism. McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, it seems to me implicitly, it draws attention to the fact that during the Vietnam War, George W. Bush was in the National Guard in the United States.
[Lowry:] Cynthia, are you suggesting no one born to a wealthy family can have any ideals be nonmaterial?
[Tucker:] No, absolutely not, Al Gore...
[Lowry:] There you go.
[Tucker:] Al Gore was also born to privilege. But it seems to me that when you're talking about inspiring Americans to something beyond materialism, it's going to be hard for George W. Bush to convey that message. He's lived very well all his life.
[Lowry:] So has Al Gore, why can Al Gore do it, but George Bush can't?
[Tucker:] And George W. Bush has had many things handed to him during his lifetime.
[Lowry:] Well, so has Al Gore, that's totally irrelevant.
[Page:] You know, we saw a military theme last night, and, Cynthia, you mentioned his lack of service. "The Wall Street Journal" points out this morning that this is the first time since 1928, that the Republican ticket has not had either a presidential candidate or a vice president candidate who actively served in the military.
[Tucker:] That's right.
[Page:] So this could be in contrast to the Democratic ticket, Al Gore served as an Army journalist in Vietnam. If he chooses John Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts, who is on his short list, he would have two Democrats who served in Vietnam against two Republicans who avoided serving in Vietnam. And I wonder if that takes this military issue, which has traditionally been a Republican strength, and gives it over to the other side.
[Hemmer:] Let me jump in, just want to move the conversation a little bit, just to clarify, last night with Bernie, Judy and Jeff Greenfield, John McCain, after his speech, said before I used the words "I am haunted by the vision" he spoke of optimism prior to that. That was a sort of explanation we got from McCain.
[Lowry:] It's also a de Tocqueville quote, it didn't come out of nowhere, when you referred to it earlier.
[Hemmer:] Let's talk about the Hatfield and McCoys out there right now, the Clintons and Bushes, what's happening on this front, Rich?
[Lowry:] Well, I think what is going on here is that Clinton just can't help himself. He's such a natural campaigner. He loves to fight so much. He can't restrain himself. And I thought we saw from President Bush just a little of the contempt that he must have felt, all through these seven years, for President Clinton, and what he's done to the office, beginning to bubble up. So it's a great soap opera sort of twist for the week.
[Page:] Well, you've got to put it in the context of the 1992 election, you know, George Bush the senior was running. He was denied a second term by the ticket of Clinton and Gore. Now his oldest son rises to face Al Gore and try to win back the Oval Office, it's really like a mythical story.
[Tucker:] But George W. Bush is not running against Bill Clinton. He's running against Al Gore, and for me that is one of the interesting things about the continuing references implicit, of course, to Bill Clinton.
[Hemmer:] But maybe the suggestion there is that Al Gore's best campaigner could be Bill Clinton in this whole thing.
[Tucker:] Well, that depends, the fact of the matter is, at the Democratic convention, obviously we will get the chance to have Al Gore and Tipper highlighted. And while Al Gore certainly has some lingering issues about campaign finances and contributions, he doesn't have the Monica Lewinsky issue. He has a very solid marriage. And so the implicit references to Bill Clinton's own integrity issues make you think that this is between George Senior and President Clinton.
[Hemmer:] We have two minutes left here, let's talk about this convention, the packaging that has been so highly profiled through this. Is it possible that as a party, be it Republican or Democratic, that after this convention, this is what a party wants to relay? Certainly as news people we want news, but looking back, when this thing is over, is this the prototype? is this the example? the model that political parties will use to say, look, America, we are together on this?
[Page:] You know, this is a model for parties that tend to win in November. A united party all together behind their nominee, avoiding the things they want to fight about. It's what the Democrats did in '92. And you see the Republicans really willing to put aside their differences, and there are differences in this party, in the hopes of winning in November.
[Lowry:] Well, I agree with that, and what was a key factor was that Bush was able to solidify and nail down his base in during the primaries, because he was challenged from the left by John McCain. And that's why you have conservative base solidly behind him and willing to put up with often times extremely substance-free show here.
[Hemmer:] Listen, we have 30 seconds left. Quickly now, it's August 2 now, where are we in a month? where are we on Labor Day?
[Tucker:] Well, in Labor Day, I think, at Labor Day, the voters will just be beginning to pay attention. I think that by then the polls will have tightened, George W. Bush will not be enjoying quite the lead over Gore that he is at the moment.
[Lowry:] Well, we'll wait and see, it probably will tighten, I don't think these polls that show 16 or an 11 point lead are real and that it will get tighter.
[Page:] Around Labor Day, the polls really start to matter, when the candidate who's leading at Labor Day tends to win in November.
[Hemmer:] How's your Spanish by the way?
[Page:] Not too good.
[Hemmer:] Start brushing up, all right? Cynthia Tucker, Rich Lowry, Susan Page, thanks, really appreciate you time coming back, OK?
[Lowry:] Thanks for having us.
[Hemmer:] "CROSSFIRE" times three.