How al will fight back

摘要

The skybox high above the convention floor in Philadelphia brimmed with campaign aides, canapes and quiet confidence. Down below, George W. Bush was about to deliver a secular sermon to the Republican convention, promising a baby-boomer crusade to the sunlit uplands of "essential values." (Translation: away from the example of Bill Clinton.) It was time, Bush declared, to "tear down that wall" separating haves from have-nots, and unleash the power of markets and hearts to ensure that "no child is left behind." In the box, architects of Bush's carefully thoughtout campaign gazed down on what they had wrought. "The people like him and are inclined to vote for him," said the campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh. "Our job from now until November is reassurance: to reassure voters it's OK to do what they already want to do."