NEW YORK, Sept 2: Vice President Dick Cheney led the Republican convention's most stinging assault on Democrat John Kerry on Wednesday, depicting him as a weak and indecisive leader who was unfit to be commander in chief.
Mr Cheney, one of President George Bush's most influential advisers, said the Massachusetts senator had "a habit of indecision" and should not be entrusted with the White House.
"On Iraq, Senator Kerry has disagreed with many of his fellow Democrats, but Senator Kerry's liveliest disagreement is with himself," Mr Cheney said in a speech accepting the party's nomination for a second term as vice president.
"His back and forth reflects a habit of indecision, and sends a message of confusion," he said, citing Mr Kerry's votes to authorize the invasion of Iraq and to support domestic initiatives that he has since criticized.
"Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual - America sees two John Kerrys." The prime-time televised showcase for Mr Cheney gave Americans their closest look in years at a key figure in the Bush administration.
Dick Cheney, a strong supporter of the Iraq occupation, said Mr Kerry did not understand that the world had changed after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, and questioned whether the Democrat could be trusted to sit in the Oval Office.
"In this time of challenge, America needs - and America has - a president we can count on to get it right," Mr Cheney said, praising George Bush as "a man who speaks plainly and means what he says".
He said Mr Bush saw a growing threat in Iraq and removed it, and credited his decisive action with convincing Libya to abandon its nuclear programme. But, he said, "time and again Senator Kerry has made the wrong call on national security."
In the harshest speech of the convention, keynote speaker Zell Miller, a Democratic senator from Georgia who is backing Mr Bush, said Kerry would be a "dangerous" leader.
"Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations," said Mr Miller. "Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide."
KERRY & KENNEDY: Mr Miller, a conservative who earlier this year started a "Democrats for Bush" group, linked John Kerry with his fellow senator from Massachusetts, liberal Edward Kennedy.
He said that for more than 20 years, "on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure."
Democrats decried the sharp tone of the speeches by Mr Cheney and Mr Miller, and noted Cheney had mentioned Mr Kerry by name 14 times but the word "jobs" only twice. "America deserves better than an attack dog vice president who only tears people down rather than coming up with ideas that will lift middle class families up," the Democratic National Committee said. -Reuters
