All roads lead to Philadelphia for candidates, delegates, as convention kick-off nears

By Ian Christopher McCaleb/CNN

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- The nation's earliest capital again became the focus of American politics Saturday, as Republican delegates streamed into Philadelphia in advance of their party's national convention, which begins Monday.

Physical prepartions for the Republican National Convention continued Saturday at the First Union Center in Philadelphia.

The time for physical preparations at the convention site, Philadelphia's gleaming new basketball and hockey stadium, the First Union Center, passed smoothly as one of the very last logistical tasks was accomplished -- the banners for the state delegations were raised on the floor -- and as the Secret Service completed its full security sweep of the area.

Cheney prepared to break away from his tour with Bush, the GOP presidential candidate and presumed nominee. He was expected to make his way into Philadelphia by Sunday afternoon, well ahead of the Texas governor.

As is traditional for party presidential candidates, Bush will not set foot in Philadelphia until Wednesday, the day prior to his expected nomination. However, Bush will participate in the convention every night via a variety of remote hook-ups.

Andrew Card, co-chairman of the convention, said Saturday that a rally is being coordinated for the arrival of Cheney and his wife Lynne -- whose conservative activism is well regarded in party circles -- at a downtown Philadelphia hotel late Sunday afternoon.

Cheney will circulate among delegates and grant a number of media interviews from Sunday to Wednesday night, when he is scheduled to deliver what Card describes as the "ultimate address," capping a night whose theme is expected to focus on Republican aspirations for tax relief and expanded business opportunities.

Cheney's spotlight opportunity on the night before Bush accepts his party's nomination is intended to play to the conservative base of the party and energize the full complement of more than 4,000 delegates and alternates as Bush's six-state, pre-convention tour comes to an end.

A survey conducted by the Associated Press and released Saturday afternoon determined that half of the state delegates attending the convention were heading into their first national party gathering, while the news agency turned up one -- Charles Thone of Nebraska -- who claimed to be attending his 13th, dating back to the 1952 GOP confab in Chicago.

Speaking in the tobacco-farming community of Owensboro, Kentucky, on Saturday -- just a short trip from Kentucky's border with Ohio, a key battleground state this election year -- Bush stood firmly by his plan to privatize portions of the Social Security system in a way that would allow individuals to invest some of their payroll taxes into the stock market.

"We must give young workers that option," he said. "Otherwise, there will be no Social Security system when the baby boomers retire."

And, he cautioned local seniors not to believe Democratic scare tactics centered on his proposal.

"I want the elderly here in this audience to here me loud and clear," Bush said. "Don't be fooled by the politics of the past. Don't be fooled by that kind of politics where they're going to get on your TV screen and try to scare you. President George W. Bush will keep the promise to the elderly in America."

Convergence of one-time rivals

Touring coaches crammed with political entourages and media types were a celebrated portion of the early segments of this year's political campaign, and Arizona Sen. John McCain looked this weekend to squeeze one last ride out of his "Straight Talk Express" -- the bus that plied the back roads of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan in January and February.

McCain's motor coach left the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, for Philadelphia on Saturday, with arrival expected to come sometime in the late afternoon. As the bus -- loaded with journalists and a full complement of donuts -- warmed up, Bush's fiercest primary rival said he was not at all angry about the rancor aired in public during the campaign's early stages, and looked forward to campaigning with the Texas governor.

"This will just remind us of the great time we had," McCain said of the idling bus. "But there's no anger. We've got to look forward."

The former Vietnam prisoner of war is slated to speak before the convention Tuesday night. Shortly after the convention, he expected to campaign for his former foe, and has even invited George and Laura Bush to spend a night at the McCain home in Sedona, Arizona.

"This idea started with a couple of people coming up and saying, 'Hey, why don't we take a final trip on the Straight Talk Express?,'" McCain said. "And it seems to have expanded into something a little larger than that."

In the city

State officials backed an extensive radio, television and print advertising campaign aimed at welcoming politicians, staffers and delegates to Philadelphia, all of which was intended to highlight civic improvements throughout the city.

Gov. Tom Ridge, a prominent Republican widely mentioned as a vice presidential prospect, was granted the opportunity Saturday of delivering the GOP response to President Clinton's weekly radio address. Rather than concentrate on rebuttals or policy proposals, Ridge illustrated what his party and his state hoped to accomplish by week's end.

Holding the convention in Philadelphia was significant, Ridge said, because prominent party leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, met there in 1856 to choose their first nominee for president. Lincoln became the nation's first Republican president when he was elected four years later -- and the party has often referred to itself as "the party of Lincoln" in an effort to draw attention to its diversity and stated policy of inclusiveness.

"I can't imagine a better place to begin the renewal of America's purpose than the cradle of American democracy," Ridge said Saturday.

Ridge said he "can't wait" for the convention to begin, or to listen to Bush, his "good friend and great leader."

"Bush is willing to tackle the tough issues -- the ones some leaders refuse to touch," Ridge said. "Issues such as real education reform, national security and defense, preserving Social Security and restoring America's values to government."

'How bad could I be?' Clinton mocks Bush

Democrats seemed content, for the most part, in laying back through the weekend and letting the Republicans enjoy their week in the spotlight, though the surrogates of Bush's rival, Vice President Al Gore, continued to attack Cheney's record as a lawmaker in the House of Representatives throughout the 1980s.

Gore locked himself away with his family on a barrier island off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday for a week-long vacation, but President Clinton managed to crack wise in Massachusetts at a pair of party fund-raisers, one of which was attended by a thick cadre of Kennedys.

At a New England clambake Friday night, Clinton poked fun at Bush as pampered and privileged, joking: "'How bad could I be? I've been governor of Texas, my daddy was president, I own a baseball team, they like me down there, everything is rocking along hunky-dory.'"

"'Their fraternity had it for eight years, give it to ours for eight years because we're compassionate and humane,"' Clinton continued. '"We're not like what you think about us from watching the Congress for the last five years.'"

The president's comparatively light jabs were extended just hours after Bush, in a speech on Clinton's home soil -- the state of Arkansas -- said his running mate, Cheney, understood the meaning of the word "is."

The reference harkened back to Clinton's darkest days as president, when he offered his puzzling legal ploy about the literal meaning of "is" when deposed in the midst of the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky scandals.

Peaceful protests on city streets as convention area locked down

Long-promised protests by several groups began to take shape in Philadelphia on Saturday, but none could be characterized by the sort of violence and civil disobedience predicted by Philadelphia police officials, many of whom greatly fear replays of the street melees seen earlier this year in Seattle, and to a lesser degree, Washington, D.C., as demonstrators attempted to disrupt meetings of the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund.

That anticipated unrest may not have materialized -- and may be contained if it does -- because activists have had a hard time situating themselves anywhere near the First Union Center. Thoroughfares are stocked with police officers, and parks and open spaces across the street from the sports complex are inaccessible -- having been surrounded by seven-foot chainlink fences.

On Saturday afternoon, friends and loved ones of those whose lives were lost in acts of gun violence marched from the Liberty Bell, at Independence Hall -- some two miles from the convention site -- through city streets as they protested Republican intransigence in the face of calls for tougher gun laws.

Elsewhere in the city, a group of 75 denounced police brutality, after the July 12 severe beating meted out by city officers upon a suspect accused of making off with a police car, and another group called for greater insurance coverage of catastrophic illnesses.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney chose to pay a visit to that group of demonstrators, making his entrance on a police bicycle in the afternoon, wearing shorts and a t-shirt emblazoned with the designation "Commissioner."

Timoney circulated among the protesters and attempted to assure them that his officers had been trained to handle the delicate nature of street demonstrations.

One marcher sidled up to the commissioner during his appearance and said, "If we promise to behave as well as the Washington protesters, will you promise not to tear gas us?"

"Yes," Timoney replied, "If you behave well, we won't tear gas you."

With larger protests expected Sunday and Monday, demonstrators who have yet to make appearances on city streets may not be so assured. Some welfare and human rights activists who have said they intend to rally on Monday will likely do so without permission -- drawing immediate notice from and possible swift action by the police.

The "Silent March" against gun violence featured some 100 participants bearing headstone-shaped placards, all of whom walked a slow loop near Philadelphia's center city area.

Saying they represented an "army of the bereaved," some demonstrators focused their distress on Bush for his opposition to gun control efforts in the Lone Star State.

"He should feel the pain and devastation that we go through. I, as a mother that have lost my only son," said one woman. "I'd like to see how he'd feel if he lost one of his children because of some ignorant who purchased a gun out in the street for a minimal amount of money."

Their placards listed the total number of gun deaths in each state in 1997, focusing on the number of those classified by law enforcement as homicides. Florida, for instance, had 1,979 gun deaths listed, more than 700 of which were thought to have been homicides.

Organizers in 40 states shipped boxes of shoes, workboots or sneakers worn by gunshot victims -- 18,000 in all -- and dumped them in a block-long mass trench along the procession route. Hundreds of pairs of baby shoes were seen mixed into the assortment.

Andrew Card, co-chairman of the Republican National Convention, discounted the significance of the protests. Asked about their impact on Saturday, Card replied, "None that I'm aware of. None."

In a protest of a different sort, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader stormed into Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday to blast Bush for his record as governor of Texas, and the Republican and Democratic conventions for their showbiz-type atmosphere.

"All these candidates talk about children," Nader said of Bush and Vice President Gore. "George W. Bush has pictures with minority kids all the time while he lets them rot in Texas." When are we going to decide that enough is enough?"

Of the major party political conventions, Nader said, "The conventions now are no longer forums for vigorous debate between contending candidates and contending issues... They're primarily a forum of political entertainment funded by corporate patrons who expect favors in return."

The Bush campaign seemed just as disinterested in Nader's activities as it did in that of the growing number of protesters in metro Philadelphia. Scott McClellan, a deputy press secretary for the Bush campaign, dismissed the longtime consumer activist's comments, insisting the governor had a "record of achievement" in Texas.

And, McClellan insisted, Nader's influence isn't to be taken too seriously as November approaches. "This is a race between Al Gore and Governor Bush," he said, downplaying Nader's role in the presidential race.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.