WASHINGTON, Aug 29: The Republican National Convention begins in New York on Monday to endorse President George W. Bush's bid for a second term at the White House.
Two years ago, this seemed like a mere formality. For a prolonged period following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, Mr Bush enjoyed the highest approval ratings of any president in US history. His popularity enabled the Republicans to seize control of the two houses of Congress, although in America mid-term elections tend to go against the president's party. But in March 2003, Mr Bush decided to invade Iraq, a decision he said would make America safer because Iraq had links to Al Qaeda and also possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Later, both his claims proved wrong. More than a year after occupying Iraq, US troops are still to find weapons of mass destruction or to prove Baghdad's links to Al Qaeda. And despite Mr Bush's promises of a quick victory, the war in Iraq is rapidly becoming a long-drawn and bloody affair with no signs of a victory in the near future.
The US-backed Iraqi government, which Mr Bush hopes bring democracy to Iraq, is still heavily dependent on US troops. The influence of religious clerics opposed to the US presence in Iraq continues to increase, further eroding the authority of the interim Iraqi government.
With nearly 1,000 Americans and thousands more Iraqis already dead, the anti-war sentiment in the United States continues to grow stronger, questioning both Mr Bush's justification for invading Iraq and his strategy for dealing with the post-war situation.
"The 58-year-old president is facing an electorate that seems to know him quite well; they just don't agree on what to think about him," says Marc Sandalow, Washington bureau chief of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"He invited the electorate two years ago to judge him over the then-looming confrontation with Iraq. To the delight of Democrats, it is precisely such judgments that polls say are shadowing his reelection campaign," say Washington Post analysts John F Harris and Mike Allen.
They point out that Mr Bush's decision to confront Democrats directly and immerse himself in partisan electioneering ensured that he would face reelection with "little of the rally-behind-the-leader sentiment that flowed to him after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks." But Matthew Dowd, a senior strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign, says that this election will be dominated by national security. The voters, he says, still want to know: "What are you going to do about terror?"
Others disagree. Mr Sandalow believes that the United States is divided over fundamental policy issue: how to proceed in Iraq, improve health care, improve schools and create new jobs, and whether to restrict stem cell research, ban same-sex marriage and raise taxes.
But all commentators agree that despite his troubles in Iraq and an uninspiring performance at home, Mr Bush remains the darling of the Republican Party. There was hardly any dissent within the party over his candidacy and he raised more money for the election than any politician before him.
"Yet in the four years since he first accepted his party's nomination, opposition to his policies have inspired new levels of political activism among opponents. Mr Bush has also driven many detractors to the brink of rage, where the very sound of his voice or the sight of his face on television prompts an intense, gut-level reaction," says Mr Sandalow.
Many among his detractors believe that Mr. Bush stole the 2000 election in Florida. They also say that Mr Bush governs as if he has a divine mandate, making changes that would make America even more conservative. And both his followers and detractors are descending on New York this week to show their sentiments. Republicans are coming from as far as Guam. His opponents held their first rally on Sunday when thousands demonstrated in New York against Mr Bush's policies, particularly the invasion of Iraq.
