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Experts See Drawbacks to GOP Convention in NY
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By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Republican Party's hope that its convention in New York would highlight a nation healed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks could backfire as the White House comes under fire for its handling of the crisis and the war in Iraq (news - web sites), strategists said on Monday.
President Bush's re-election effort is plagued with questions on whether his administration could have prevented the attacks, and holding his party's convention just minutes away from the World Trade Center, where nearly 3,000 people were killed, could make matters worse, they said.
"It was the wrong place to go from the beginning," veteran Republican political consultant Roger Stone said.
"They wanted to highlight the president's strong leadership in the days after 9/11, which includes the conduct of the war, and now that is going to be a contentious, hard-fought issue," he said, adding that, "The backdrop here has the potential to dominate the story."
When the party chose New York for the convention scheduled to begin on Aug. 30, officials painted the move as a way to show off a city rebuilding from the attacks, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Bush White House.
But that picture has soured. The war in Iraq is deteriorating with some of the bloodiest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) whose al Qaeda network is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks remains at large. Some families of Sept. 11 victims accuse Republicans of trying to politically exploit the tragedy.
The administration's handling of the crisis is under scrutiny from the 9/11 commission which is to issue its report on July 26, just as Democrats head into their convention in Boston. Bush has said the administration knew bin Laden "had designs on America" but had no warning that an attack was about to take place.
Republicans may pay for their miscalculation, said Joseph Mercurio, a consultant to both Republican and Democratic candidates.
"I think they thought that 9/11 and the war on terrorism were going to be winners for them, and I think increasingly there's a problem," he said. "That was a wild card gamble, and I think they may be on the wrong side of it."
Stone added that the Iraq war is looking like a "prolonged struggle," not a triumph, and that it is not wise to highlight an issue that has so divided voters.
"You want to highlight an issue in which the voters are overwhelmingly on your side," he said.
Typically, experts say a convention is held in a swing state or one with a strong party base. The heavily Democratic New York is neither for Republicans, they noted.
Remorse among Republicans is overplayed, said convention spokesman Mark Pfeifle. He said the city was picked for financial, cultural, transportation and labor considerations.
"New York is one of the nation's most diverse cities and provides a tremendous platform to highlight the president's commitment to opportunity and inclusion for all Americans," he said.
Ron Faucheux, columnist for Campaigns & Elections magazine, said the city remained an appropriate convention site.
"It's a good signal that they would go to the nation's largest city even though it's a Democratic city," he said. "It's up to them to figure out from a policy standpoint whether they can deal with the scrutiny on 9-11."
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