PHILADELPHIA - Republicans prepared yesterday for a stage-managed convention to nominate George W. Bush for President, but his running mate, Dick Cheney, came under fire from President Bill Clinton as he arrived in Philadelphia.
With Bush, the Governor of Texas, campaigning in Ohio, his running mate was the target of a Democratic attack advertisement that will begin running in 17 states today, the first day of the Republican National Convention.
The political storm surrounding the former Defence Secretary overshadowed tepid political protests on the streets of Philadelphia, where barely 5000 activists showed up to rally peacefully against corporate money in politics, the death penalty and other causes.
As Bush stretched his lead over Vice-President Al Gore in opinion polls, Democrats targeted Cheney's conservative voting record when he represented Wyoming in the House of Representatives in the 1980s.
In Chicago, Clinton said that Cheney once voted against a resolution urging the release of black South African leader Nelson Mandela from jail.
"That takes your breath away."
Cheney, addressing a Philadelphia rally, retorted, "We want to make Americans proud again by giving them a President they can respect."
The television advert attacks Cheney as a conservative extremist for votes he cast in Congress. "Cheney was one of only eight members of Congress to oppose the Clean Water Act, one of the few to vote against Head Start [a preschool programme for poor children]. He even voted against the school lunch programme, against health insurance for people who lost their jobs," the advert says.
Cheney claimed the votes were taken out of context.
- REUTERS
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