NEW YORK, Aug 25 (AFP) - With the United States bitterly divided, a Republican with a reputation as a country hick comes to New York and tries to convince Americans he belongs in the White House.
George W. Bush in 2004? No, Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
Lincoln gave a brilliant speech on slavery, the issue of the day, and triumphed at the polls after a clever Broadway photographer helped shed his bumpkin image and depict a smart and capable leader instead.
Nearly 150 years later, Bush will be hoping that New York magic works again as he heads to America's marquee city, now a stronghold of his Democratic party rivals, for next week's Republican national convention.
New York has long held a special place in the imaginations of people around the globe, from the earliest Dutch settlers who dreamt of fortune to the Arab attackers who brought down the World Trade Center.
No other city in the United States, and perhaps few others in the world, can lay such claim to being a mythic locale where fortunes are won and lost, and anyone with a dream could one day strike it big.
The British dubbed it New York in 1664 after seizing control of the settlement from the Dutch, who had managed to build up a population of only 1,500 people in the previous four decades.
A hub for loyalists to the British throne, New York was the only American city under British occupation for almost the entire War of Independence -- and emerged from that conflict desolate and badly damaged.
But it was quickly rebuilt into a financial powerhouse, and by the end of the 18th century was already the centre for a new stocks and securities trade that developed into the Wall Street of today.
One memoirist of the time said the city's motto was "Go ahead" and New Yorkers did just that, creating an urban marvel of wealth and technology -- along with a host of new mass entertainments.
Madison Square Garden, where Bush will accept the Republican nomination next week, was used by P.T. Barnum in 1873 to stage the world's first three-ring circus.
By the end of the 19th century, New York streets were home to the luxury residences of wealthy industrialists as well as the impoverished slums of foreign workers who laboured under often appalling conditions.
The 1911 fire at a garment factory, which killed more than 140 people, most Jewish and Italian immigrant girls, helped galavanise the US labour movement and establish the city as a touchstone for progressive politics.
In the 20th century, New York cemented its position as a cultural centre and acted as a magnet for intellectuals and artists -- and later as a playground for the super-rich and their hangers-on.
Yet there has always been ambivalence about the city.
One guide book gushed that Rockefeller Center would mark New York as much as the Louvre does Paris, while famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright said the city was good for nothing besides banking and prostitution.
Either way, New York has remained loyal to the Democratic party, a place where Republicans are usually seen as foreign and perhaps evil creatures.
A well-known writer for the highbrow New Yorker magazine was famously quoted saying she didn't know anyone who had voted for Richard Nixon -- after the Republican won the White House in a landslide.
Little has changed since and even the city's current mayor, Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is a former Democrat who has little in common with the hard-liners in Bush's party.
The Republicans have come under fire for holding their convention in New York for the first time ever, with critics accusing them of trying to use the upcoming anniversary of the September 11 attacks for political ends.
Many residents are also irked by the security clampdown that will buckle the city tight, with streets closed, trains cancelled, taxi stands relocated and a host of other measures the public will never even learn about.
With a touch of vintage New York flair, Bloomberg has tried to win over the tens of thousands expected to descend on the city to demonstrate against Bush -- by proposing giving them a discount on hotels and restaurants.
"We want the many thousands of protestors to feel welcome and take advantage of all New York City has to offer," he said. "Its no fun to protest on an empty stomach."