Centrists at center stage

The Republican National Convention, running tomorrow through Thursday on Broadway, will feature a famous movie star, a decorated war hero, “America’s mayor” and a conservative Democrat whose heart has left his party.

All will be speaking in prime time in New York City on behalf of the re-election of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, giving the convention the most political star power since Ronald Reagan’s immense popularity sparked the rise of the Republican Party to a governing majority in the 1980s.

Yet all those prime-time speakers — except for rogue conservative Democrat Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia — are centrists, a fact that pushes onto television screens an ongoing struggle for the soul of the party.

Conservatives have been grumbling for weeks about the prime-time keynote-speaking lineup of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday and Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani tomorrow.

But the sight of Mr. Miller betraying a party that he contends has abandoned him might be enough to mend any bruised egos.

“Yes, conservatives are going to feel somewhat neglected in terms of the range of convention speakers,” said Phil Kent, an alternate delegate from DeKalb County, Ga. “But the choice of conservative Democrat Zell Miller as the keynote speaker is a wonderful political windfall for the Bush-Cheney ticket.

“The American body politic needs to hear a Democrat colleague of John Kerry underscore on prime-time TV why President Bush is a far better commander in chief in the war on terrorism and in managing the economic recovery,” he said.

Mr. Kent, a conservative author, added that the maverick and sharp-witted Mr. Miller might give viewers more rhetorical fireworks than they saw at the managed and muffled Democratic convention last month.

“He openly calls Kerry spineless, and he may get even tougher on Kerry at the convention,” Mr. Kent said.

Charlie Black, an unofficial political adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign, said the most important speeches will, obviously, be given by the president and vice president. Mr. Bush, especially, will be trying to restore the strong faith the country had in his leadership during the period immediately after the September 11 attacks, he noted.

However, the sight of a lifelong Democrat speaking on behalf of a Republican to be president will be powerful, Mr. Black said, especially because just 12 years ago Mr. Miller gave the nominating speech for Bill Clinton.

“I think Zell Miller will turn out to be one of the most important speakers,” added Mr. Black, who expects the convention’s star-studded speaking lineup to attract more casual political viewers than the Democrats’ more conventional slate.

“He’s going to be standing there as a lifelong Democrat talking about how his party left him,” Mr. Black said. “The most important issue for the next generation is the war on terror, and Miller will say that Bush has led it effectively. That might have an impact on viewers who aren’t Republicans.”

Mr. Bush will deliver his nomination acceptance speech from a special stage pushed out into the middle of Madison Square Garden and surrounded by Republican delegates.

The break from tradition, where the nominee stands high above and in front of the delegates on a conventional stage, is a way to get Mr. Bush “closer to people,” said the president’s chief media adviser, Mark McKinnon.

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