Sept. 11 On The Podium

CBSNews.com producer Jarrett Murphy reports on the Republican National Convention.

Reminders of the tragedy's proximity — and of the importance of Sept. 11 in President Bush's first term — were abundant.

On a day with the theme "the courage of a nation," the opening prayer by Sheri Drew of Salt Lake City, Utah, asked God for "freedom from those who would terrorize us, encroach upon our borders and our peace of mind."

During Monday's evening session, former mayor and Sept. 11 figure Rudolph Giuliani is a featured speaker. Giuliani's police commissioner on the tragic day, Bernie Kerik, will also appear. A New York Police Department color guard will help open the evening events.

The morning session made the day's theme clear. A film welcoming delegates to New York began with a picture of a broad back wearing a dirty FDNY jacket as a voice said, "My New York is courage." Later, a smiling firefighter told the camera, "My New York is brave."

Then Mayor Michael Bloomberg took the stage to say that when he took office in early 2002, New York was "a city in mourning — a city that had, in a few dreadful hours, lost almost 3,000 of our own husbands, wives, sons, and daughters from every part of the nation, and every corner of the globe."

Bloomberg, speaking in front of a giant screen featuring the stars and stripes over a silhouetted city skyline, said he wanted to thank Mr. Bush for trying to secure more homeland security funding for New York and for "leading the global war on terrorism."

"In this city George W. Bush confronted one of the greatest tests of leadership ever to face a president," added Marc Racicot, former Montana governor and Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman. "In this city America finally awoke to the realities of a world at war."

Since the Republican National Convention announced that it would hold its 2004 convention in New York City — the RNC's first ever gathering in Gotham — and hold it so close to the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, there has been speculation as to how often and explicit the references would be to Sept. 11.

The tragedy can be tricky political territory. Too much emphasis on the tragedy and "you're going to have victims' families who may disagree on various points with the president," American Enterprise Institute research fellow John Fortier explained. "You're going to have the charge that your politicizing Sept. 11."

In March, when a Bush campaign ad featured split-second images of the trade center rubble, some victims families cried foul. Others backed the ad.

Perhaps nodding to the Sept. 11 sensitivities, Mr. Bush does not intend to visit Ground Zero during convention week.

But few who attended Monday's early session seemed reluctant to make the terrorist attacks and the response to them part of the message of the four-day gathering.

"I think that Sept. 11 happened and that is undeniable," said Jose Rodriguez, an alternate delegate from Puerto Rico whose hotel is across the street from Ground Zero. "I believe that George Bush's role in doing what could be done to keep America safe undeniably will be in the minds of every voter regardless of whether it makes its way into this convention."

Mary Wren of Minnesota, a guest and party activist, said she thought Sept. 11 was as fair game for the GOP as Vietnam was for the Democrats.

"When you look at John Kerry stressing his leadership 35 years ago, I think President Bush's leadership three years ago is relevant," Wren said.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former RNC chair, said he is unafraid of charges that the GOP is exploiting the tragedy.

"Because it's obvious to everybody that you can't have a convention without it," Barbour said. "It's one of the big issues that affects this campaign, a big issue that affects that future of this country. How could you not have it as part of the convention?

"People are going to try to decide whether we're doing the right thing militarily, whether we're doing the right thing on homeland security, doing the right thing on national security, doing the right thing economically. All those deal with specific policies each one of them, one way or another, to some degree or another, related to what happened on Sept. 11."

References to the attacks began even before the convention kicked off. At a welcoming event on Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney recalled when Mr. Bush visited the rubble in the days after the attack and said told rescue workers, "'I can hear you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will soon hear from all of us.'"

They'll continue on Monday night. Portions of Giuliani's speech, released early, equate Mr. Bush's response to the 2001 attacks with Winston Churchill's battle against Hitler and Ronald Reagan's crusade against communism.

"George W. Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is and he will remain consistent to the purpose of defeating it while working to make us ever safer at home."

Sen. John McCain's prepared remarks include the line: "That day was the moment when the hinge of history swung toward a new era … It shook us from our complacency in the belief that the Cold War's end had ushered in a time of global tranquility."

The Republicans are not the only ones making use of Sept. 11's symbolism.

A group of Sept. 11 families is marching from the site of the Democratic convention in Boston to New York City, carrying a tombstone for civilians killed in war. The stone was to arrive in New York in time for the Republican gathering, and stay through the third anniversary of the 2001 attacks.

Still others talk about Sept. 11 less as a political — and more as a personal — event. For NFL coaching legend Jerry Glanville, attending the convention to discuss his trip to visit the troops in Iraq, Sept. 11 is part of New York City's appeal.

"This is not a city to try to set an example against, because this city will absolutely not tolerate anybody pushing them around," he said. "That's the fun of being in New York."

By Jarrett Murphy