Bush: McCain won't yield to 'angry Left'

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - "If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve,'' President Bush said in a brief satellite-linked address to the Republican National Convention here last night, "you can be sure the angry Left never will.''

The angry Left?

Is that McCain's opposition?

Barack Obama wants to raise taxes, the Republicans are warning voters. And he is "dangerously unprepared'' to lead, their TV ads warn viewers. But "angry?''

"America is in the middle of a heated campaign,'' First Lady Laura Bush said at the podium of the convention hall last night - introducing the president's 10-minute communiqué transmitted from the Cross Hall of the White House at close to 10 pm EDT.

Bush succeeded in raising the temperature with this oddly phrased shot at the Left. By implication, with all that he praised about McCain here, he finds much wanting in Obama. He suggested, too, that one of these candidates understands "the lessons of Sept. the 11th, 2001,'' and will not wait "to be hit again.''

During the past eight years, the president said, "I've sat at the resolute desk.'' And he knows this of McCain: "He is ready to lead this nation. . .''

McCain's life story is "a story of service above self,'' he said. Telling the tale of McCain's long imprisonment and torture in Hanoi during the war in Vietnam, Bush reminded the hall that the admiral's son had been offered an early release before others who had been captured before him but refused: "When he was released, his arms had been broken, but not his honor,'' the president said. "If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry Left never will....

"We live in a dangerous world,'' Bush said. "And we need a president who understands the lessons of Sept the 11th, 2001: That to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen, and not wait to be hit again.''