Congressman Jim Leach says President Bush faces a challenge tonight when he speaks in New York City at the G-O-P’s National Convention. Leach says every politician faces the same dilemma of how to explain the economy in ways that fit the times. Leach says the President has an opportunity to make it clear that the economy’s growing and more jobs are being created – especially as more folks start businesses in their own homes – jobs that aren’t immediately on the radar screen because they’re non-traditional jobs. Leach, one of the leading moderate republicans in Congress, says the party moderates who’ve been given big, prime-time roles in the G-O-P’s national convention got those roles because they’re national figures. Leach says movie star and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are truly interesting characters. Leach says Giuliani and Schwarzenegger were picked to speak because they’re strong leaders, not because they’re pro-choice. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, part of the “democratic response” at the convention, says the republicans have trotted out speakers who do not back President Bush’s call for a ban on gay marriage and abortion.
