President Bush to speak at convention tonight, Hurricane Frances roaring toward coast of Florida
LOU DOBBS, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, President Bush will tell voters America needs steady, consistent, and principled leadership. We'll have a preview of the president's speech live from the Republican National Convention. Three top figures in the Republican Party, Republican National Committee Ed Gillespie, Congressman David Drier, and senator and majority whip Mitch McConnell, all join us.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R): What people are looking for in the next president is who can keep us safe...</s>DOBBS: Hurricane Frances is roaring toward the coast of Florida. More than 2 million people are fleeing. The hurricane is one of the biggest ever.</s>ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: It's really going to be a once-in-a-generation or once-in-a-lifetime impact, and so people need to prepare for just that.</s>DOBBS: We'll have the very latest for you on Frances, where the hurricane is expected to strike Florida, and when. We'll hear from the director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield. And in southern Russia, explosions tonight at a school where radical Islamist terrorists are holding as many as 1,000 adults and children hostage. We'll have a live report from the scene.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Thursday, September 2. Here now for an hour of news, debate, and opinion is Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Good evening. Tonight, President Bush will make his case for another four years in the White House in a primetime speech to the Republican National Convention. President Bush will accept his party's nomination and offer voters a clear program for his second term, then present himself as a resolute leader of a nation at war. President Bush is expected to say that Americans want steady, consistent, and principled leadership. Senior White House correspondent John King reports. John?</s>JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And Lou, that speech four hours away from now here in the Madison Square Garden in New York, a defining moment for this incumbent president. He believes he has some momentum right now, but this is still an extraordinarily tight election, Mr. Bush hoping to leave New York with a bit more momentum and try to keep his lead heading into the campaign's final 60 days. He was in the hall earlier today, an extraordinary setting for the speech tonight, theater in the round, if you will. Mr. Bush will be out among the delegates. He cracked a few jokes as he became comfortable with the podium. Aides say he will defend his leadership in the war on terrorism tonight. He will join the convention chorus of what we have heard for three days, suggesting that by his votes in the Senate and by what Republicans say are shifting positions, the Democrat John Kerry has proven himself unfit to command the war on terror at what the president will say is a momentous moment in history. And Mr. Bush also will outline what he will call a new liberty agenda, several new domestic initiatives aimed mostly at dealing with economic anxiety, new proposals for access to healthcare, new proposals for more retirement options. The president will say he wants to have flextime and other options for workers who are dealing with the stress of work and families. And the president will also promise to keep taxes low and to simplify the tax code. Now, in an excerpt released by the White House, we get a summary, if you will, of the president's major theme. He will tell the American people this, "I am running for president with a clear and positive plan to build a safer world and a more hopeful America. I am running with a compassionate conservative philosophy that government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives. I believe this nation wants steady, consistent, principled leadership, and that is why, with your help, we will win this election." Aides expect the speech to run about an hour. It comes on the fourth and final night of the Republican convention. Democrats have been saying what they hear in this convention hall the past three nights is anger, even hatred, attack after attack on Senator John Kerry. The Democrats say those attacks are proof to them that the White House believes it can only win if it demonizes President Bush's opponent. First Lady Laura Bush told me earlier today she thinks maybe the Democrats are a bit too thin-skinned.</s>LAURA BUSH: I think we've seen the record of the senator that's running against my husband examined, and that's what happens when you get into politics. That's what happens when you run for office. And, you know, it happens to everybody. You get criticized, and that's just a fact of life in American politics.</s>KING: Take a look at the backdrop for tonight's speech, not only theater in the round, but two giant mockups of the Statue of Liberty on the back of the stage. The White House says it fits with Mr. Bush's theme of this new liberty agenda, giving citizens, not government, more power. But it also is an unmistakable reminder of this city, the city hardest hit by the September 11 attacks. Another constant Democratic criticism this week is that President Bush plays up fear of the possibility of another terrorist attack for political gain. The man who helped the president craft his speech tonight says not true.</s>MICHAEL GERSON, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE SPEECHWRITER: I don't know how it's possible to overplay the defense of the American people. The fact of the matter is, it's his most fundamental constitutional duty. And the threats are very real. And he sees them every day in a way that most Americans don't. And so, you know, that is the most basic commitment of the president of the United States.</s>KING: Mr. Bush will address it just that way, call it his most basic, fundamental commitment, defending the American people, in his speech tonight -- Lou. He will not even spend the night in New York after this speech. Aides say he will make his case to the American people, then it is off to Pennsylvania. Sixty days to election day, the president wanting to take every possible second to campaign in those key states -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: John, thank you. And joining me now from the same building, Madison Square Garden, is Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee. And good to have you with us.</s>ED GILLESPIE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thanks, Lou. Good to be with you.</s>DOBBS: Ed, the setting is worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, with the president standing above this, the Great Seal of the presidency in the round. You've heard what John King said. I'm sure you've gone through what the president is going to say. How critical is the speech the president will make tonight?</s>GILLESPIE: Oh, any presidential nominating accepting speech is an important speech. It was important, Senator John Kerry's speech in Boston was important. This speech is important. When the president accepted the nomination in Philadelphia in 2000, it was important. And he, you know, this is a very forward-looking speech. It lays out a positive agenda for the future. I think that's important. Elections aren't about the future, not about the past. I think there was a mistake made in Boston, frankly, that they spent so much time talking about the past and not enough time talking about the future. This president is looking forward to talk about the things that are necessary to help the people of this country adapt to the changing economy, to the changing nature of the threats against us in the war on terror, and to put policies, as he said, that help people in terms of improving their lives, as opposed to telling them what to do. And I think that's a very fundamental difference and approach to government between the two parties.</s>DOBBS: Ed, the backdrop that will be behind the president, which we saw briefly there in John King's report, a safer America, a more hopeful America. The more hopeful part is somewhat in contrast with an incumbent who has a record of three of a half years leading the nation. Compassionate conservatism is back. Why is that so strikingly presented?</s>GILLESPIE: Well, compassionate conservatism is the essence of George W. Bush. It's not back. It's been there. It's been eclipsed by a number of events beyond our control. But the fact is, the president has been pushing consistently for the faith-based initiatives that he believes deeply in. He's implemented many by executive order, to the extent you can. He'd like to get sweeping legislation that would help in this regard. The No Child Left Behind Act has helped to improve our public schools. We're seeing rising test scores as a result of those policies. There's more we can do yet in terms of improving our public schools. When it comes to healthcare, the president is the one who delivered on promises that had been made for years in this country to provide a prescription drug benefit for America's seniors so that they can afford to buy their medicine, and he delivered on that. There's more we can do to make healthcare more affordable, more accessible, and he'll talk about those things tonight as well.</s>DOBBS: Against that backdrop, if you will, will also be the fact that. as you well know, more than a million Americans were added to those who are below the poverty line last year, more than a million Americans were added to those who are suffering without medical and healthcare insurance. How will the president address those anxieties, which are very real?</s>GILLESPIE: Well, of course, the most important thing we can do to help lift people out of poverty is to ensure economic growth that creates jobs. And we're seeing 1.5 million, we've seen 1.5 million jobs created in the past year as a result of the president's policies. He's turned a recession into a recovery. And when it comes to health insurance, you -- we'll hear, like I say, the president has talked about medical savings accounts, expanding that, and allowing for risk pooling where small businesses. As you very well know, Lou, most people get their healthcare and their health insurance from their employer, and yet small businesses have a hard time making the -- meeting the needs there, because if you have 25, 27, 30 employees, you don't get the kind of rate IBM does or General Electric. And so allowing a lot of small businesses to come together and risk pool through associated health plans would help bring down the cost of insurance. It's just one of the proposals that the president has been talking about, but there are many others to make healthcare more affordable, not the least of which, by the way, is driving out the cost of abusive lawsuits that are ending up raising liability costs.</s>DOBBS: How important is that unemployment report tomorrow, and what it shows?</s>GILLESPIE: Well, I think we want to continue to see the economy grow. We want to continue to see payroll added. We want to continue to see economic growth projections. And so obviously people will be looking at the number. You see, when you look at the number in terms of consumer confidence, consumer spending, there are good harbingers in terms of how people are feeling about the economy. And employment is one other aspect of that.</s>DOBBS: Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Convention, we thank you for being here.</s>GILLESPIE: Thank you, Lou, for having me.</s>DOBBS: Senator John Kerry will hold a late-night rally in Ohio tonight to respond to the president's speech. Senator Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, will also be attending tonight's rally in Springfield. Senator Kerry has been vacationing this week in Nantucket. Tomorrow the Kerry campaign will launch a $50 million advertising offensive. It begins in Ohio. Turning now to another rapidly developing story tonight, the massive category four hurricane that is charging toward the eastern coast of Florida. Emergency officials have now ordered more than 2 million Floridians to leave their homes. Frances is one of the biggest hurricanes ever. It has sustained winds of 140 miles an hour. Winds are gusting up to 165 miles an hour now. Frances is expected to make landfall tomorrow or early Saturday.</s>DOBBS (voice-over): Three hundred miles of Florida's coastline is under a hurricane warning tonight. The National Hurricane Center says Frances is bigger in size than Hurricane Andrew, the powerful storm that devastated Florida and killed 26 people in 1992.</s>RAPPAPORT: You have to prepare as if this was the strongest storm you're ever going to see on the Florida east coast.</s>DOBBS: Mandatory evacuations have been put into effect for nearly a dozen Florida counties. More than 2 million people have been ordered to leave.</s>CRAIG FUGATE, FLORIDA DIVISION OF EMERGENCY SERVICES: I cannot overemphasize, you cannot put this off. You cannot delay. It is not time to hope. It's time to act.</s>DOBBS: Florida residents in the path of the hurricane tonight are boarding up their homes and businesses, gassing up their cars, and hitting the highway.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went to a couple gas stations, and they were already out of gas.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't had a direct hit in Fort Lauderdale in a long time. I've been here 45 years and hadn't really been through a serious hurricane.</s>DOBBS: To put this dangerous storm in some perspective, it is equal in size to the entire state of Texas. The powerful eye of this storm alone measures 25 miles across. Storm surges as high as 14 feet are forecast. The National Hurricane Center says not since it began keeping records in 1871 have there been two category four storms to hit this country in the same year. Hurricane Andrew caused more than $26 billion in damage and was ultimately upgraded to a category five. Another devastating storm was Hurricane Hugo in September of 1989, a category four that killed as many as 85 people.</s>DOBBS: Homeowners have been trying to buy supplies to secure their homes before the arrival of Hurricane Frances, either tomorrow or early Saturday. But many stores have already run out of supplies. John Zarrella joins me now, reporting live from Miami -- John.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, we're at a Home Depot here in north Miami. And fortunately for the folks here, they just got a supply of plywood in. You can see the workers are busily loading up cars. They're waiting right now. Now, you can look over to my left, and you can see there's a line of cars, Lou, that goes down the side of this Home Depot, around the back of the Home Depot, and out the other side. There have got to be about 50 cars in line here waiting for plywood here at the 11th hour. It never ceases to amaze me, even here in south Florida, with all that this area's gone through, that people still wait till the last minute to buy plywood and try and put it up, particularly with the massive size of this hurricane. If you take a look at this hurricane from space, you can see just how enormous it is, as you were mentioning, about the size of the state of Texas. It is just once-in-a-lifetime event to see something this massive and this powerful. Hurricane Andrew was a fraction of the size of this storm. Now, as the people here are buying the plywood, of course, they're going home, and they're boarding up. And they are boarding up as quickly as they can, not knowing whether landfall will come sometime late tomorrow, perhaps Saturday, depending on where along the Florida coastline it is. The further north the storm goes, the later that landfall will be. But no one taking any chances. People are getting out, if they can. Some 2 million-plus people ordered to evacuate, asked to leave from south Florida up to the north Florida border, many of them heeding those warnings. There are pictures coming in of highways absolutely jammed, Interstate 95 jammed. Many of the east-west roads, people leaving, heading inland, trying to get away from the coastline. Even down here in south Florida, Interstate 95 north was packed today with travelers, with folks trying to get out of the way of this massive storm. So, again, I, Lou, have not seen this kind of level of anxiety here in certainly in south Florida in 12 years, and we all know what happened back then, Hurricane Andrew, Lou.</s>DOBBS: And John, I was going to ask you, of course, there is very good news in the fact that those highways are congested with people leaving what looks to be the site of the landfall of Hurricane Frances. Have you seen a shift in the weather? Have you seen a shift in the coastline there in the tides?</s>ZARRELLA: Not yet. It's still a little bit too soon. There's some high clouds that are starting to blow in. But very, very little yet, some rain showers going overhead. But all of that is just the typical south Florida afternoon rain. Really, don't expect until sometime tomorrow here in south Florida to really start seeing that eerie-looking circular clouds moving over our heads. So it'll probably be a little later tomorrow before some of those squalls start rolling in -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: John Zarella from Miami. Thank you, John. Later here, we'll be discussing Hurricane Frances and trying to ascertain its direction, its speed, and expected landfall, and its strength, of course. The director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, will be here to give us his guidance. Also ahead here tonight, explosions outside a Russian school, where radical Islamist terrorists have been holding hundreds of children and their parents hostage. We'll have a live report for you from the scene. And General David Grange will be here to assess Russia's military options to end this crisis. And then, a grand finale for the Republican Party and its national convention. I'll be talking with three of the country's top political journalists about what they expect this president to say, what the message will be. And Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority whip of the U.S. Senate, Congressman David Dreier, Republican of California, will be among our guests. All of that and a great deal more, and, of course, your e-mails, still ahead.