GOP meet: Spotlight on domestic issues

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

PHILADELPHIA, JULY 30. The formal show of the Grand Old Party begins on Monday with its National Convention getting off to a start here; and for four days, it will be nothing but speeches on the virtues of the party and why voters would have to show the Democrats that the White House is not going to be theirs next year. Though the prime focus of the convention will be on the presidential election, there is also the expectation that some of the excitement will rub off on the Congressional races where the GOP faces the prospect of losing its six-seat advantage in the House of Representatives.

The attention will also be on what presidential elections have been all about - domestic politics and policies with an occasional reference to national defence and foreign policies. Republicans - to be followed by the Democrats in Los Angeles with their convention next month - will be focussing on social security, education, crime and values.

The Republican National Convention, if one were to go by what the Texas Governor, Mr. George W. Bush, has said, is not going to be an Al Gore-bashing party. The presumptive GOP nominee has said that while there will be an occasional dig at the Vice- President and the Democrats, he is more for showcasing the Republican agenda. ``Tearing down'' the other candidate is neither the strategy nor the gameplan, the Bush campaign says. And it has accused the Gore campaign and the Democrats of doing just this.

There is more than one message that Mr. Bush is bringing with him to the convention. To start with, the manner in which he has been hitting it off in Democratic strongholds in the last several days is a reminder that the GOP is ceding no territory leading up to the November showdown. But beyond this symbolic political message is a more serious one: that the Republican party has travelled a long distance - not just since the last convention in 1996.

``I see a time in America when this great American dream extends its reach throughout society. I don't want to just hold the office. I want to lead Americans in new directions'', said Mr. Bush in Kentucky. And leading Americans in ``new directions'' will be within the framework of the ``compassionate conservatism'' that Mr. Bush has been expounding. But critics have rightly asked whether, in the process of achieving a consensus, Mr. Bush has given away too much to the far right and hardcore elements in the GOP.

The convention, again to go by what Mr. Bush has said, will be a positive one. The speeches will be plentiful, including one by Ms Laura Bush. Over the next four days, the delegates will be listening to, among others, Senator John McCain, General Colin Powell (Retd) and Ms Condoleeza Rice of Stanford University, the foreign policy advisor of Mr. Bush and seen as the National Security Advisor in a Bush administration.

A lot of attention will also be on Mr. McCain who is entering Philadelphia in a rather ``grand'' fashion - by riding for the last time on his campaign bus, the ``Straight Talk Express''. The primaries were bruising and the patch-up was formal but still the expectation is that Mr. McCain, when he speaks on Tuesday, will call on voters to back Mr. Bush.

The good news for Mr. Bush as he heads for the convention is that he has stretched his lead over Mr. Gore at the national level. Normally, a candidate getting the nomination at the convention gets a bounce either during the process or after the event is over. But Mr. Bush is also politically savvy enough to know that numbers are not permanent. ``I know what can happen. I've seen polls crumble. I have seen defeat first hand'', he said, prefacing his remark saying that he would not become over- confident.

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