CBS News - Republican Convention (intro) - 2004-09-02

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (YouTube automatic captions)

[0:01] George [music] W. Bush accepts the

[0:03] Republican presidential nomination and

[0:06] asks American voters for four more

[0:10] years.

[0:15] [music]

[0:20] Campaign 04, the Republican National

[0:24] Convention. [music]

[0:25] From Madison Square Garden in New York

[0:28] City, here is Dan Rather. [music]

[0:31] >> Good evening. George Bush is about to

[0:33] make one of the biggest speeches of his

[0:35] political career as he accepts the

[0:37] Republican nomination for another term

[0:39] as president. In just a few minutes, he

[0:42] will appear at center stage and tell the

[0:44] American people watching on television

[0:46] why he believes he deserves four more

[0:49] years in the White House. He has come

[0:51] here to New York scene of a defining

[0:53] moment in his presidency when after the

[0:55] 9/11 attacks he picked up a megaphone at

[0:58] ground zero and declared war on

[0:59] terrorism. The president tonight will

[1:01] argue that he has been a good leader of

[1:03] that war and that this is no time for a

[1:06] change at the top. He will also defend

[1:08] his overall record as president,

[1:10] including the war in Iraq and his

[1:13] handling of the US economy. The

[1:15] president will speak from a stage that

[1:17] was transformed dramatically overnight

[1:19] into a big circle featuring the

[1:20] presidential seal. Now, at the moment,

[1:23] the delegates are watching a video

[1:24] produced by the Republican party. That's

[1:26] why the lights behind me are down right

[1:28] now. And it gives me an opportunity to

[1:30] bring in one of the bright lights on our

[1:32] CBS news team, chief White House

[1:34] correspondent John Roberts, who's down

[1:35] on the floor. John, what should we be

[1:37] looking for tonight? Well, good evening,

[1:39] Dan. And as one Bush campaign official

[1:40] put it, this is just the latest most

[1:42] important speech that the president is

[1:44] going to give. It's certainly an

[1:45] opportunity for him to hit a substantial

[1:47] audience and the unfiltered fashion that

[1:49] the president likes. He has come under

[1:51] criticism from members of his own party

[1:53] recently for not more clearly laying out

[1:55] an agenda for a second term. So tonight,

[1:57] he will go some distance toward that,

[1:59] wrapping familiar campaign themes around

[2:01] some new initiatives on healthcare,

[2:03] education, small business opportunity,

[2:05] and tax reform. Not exactly what pundits

[2:08] would probably describe as a bold new

[2:10] agenda, but one the president says will

[2:12] modernize government for the challenges

[2:14] of a new century. He's going to spend

[2:16] about half the speech talking