by Magan Crane
LIMA, Ohio, Aug 28 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush rolled across Middle America Saturday en route to next week`s Republican National Convention in New York, where he will formally be nominated for another four-year term.
In a packed high school gym, Bush charmed supporters and touted his education reforms, tax cuts and the US-led war on terror launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks on US targets.
Bush cited the end of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein`s regime in Iraq, as well as Libya`s abandonment of weapons of mass destruction, as examples of how he has made the United States safer.
He vowed to keep up the fight.
"We will stay on the offence. We will defeat them elsewhere so that we do not have to face them here," he said.
"Before September 11, an American president might not have said that. We thought oceans protected us," he said. But now, "when we see a threat, we must deal with it."
Bush took a bus caravan through the corn fields and small towns of Ohio, a state he won by four percentage points in the 2000 election. The race is expected to be close again this year.
Saturday`s tour marked the president`s 22nd trip to the battleground state.
The president heads to his party`s love-fest in New York with polls showing him slightly ahead in his extremely close bid for the White House for the first time in several weeks, despite bad economic news and a troubling situation in Iraq he admits he "miscalculated."
Surrounded by screaming supporters, Bush faced friendlier crowds than those awaiting his party in New York.
On Monday, an army of Bush backers will convene to officially name him the Republicans` choice for president. Meeting amid draconian security measures, they are expected to be greatly outnumbered by protesters.
In all, the convention will host some 50,000 delegates, alternates, guests and journalists, while organizers of the first large demonstration, a Sunday parade around the slogan "No to the Bush Agenda," expect a crowd of at least 100,000.
The convention and protests will be surrounded by what US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has called "unprecedented" security.
There will be 10,000 New York City police officers assigned to the convention, backed by New York State Police, the US Coast Guard and Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies.
In the overwhelmingly Democratic city, site of the deadly September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, 52 percent of people surveyed in a CBS/New York Times poll said they would prefer that the convention be held elsewhere.
And demonstrators did not wait for the weekend.
About 5,000 protesters on bicycles descended onto New York streets late Friday in a ride billed as "a kickoff event to a week of protests." One hundred cyclists were arrested for "disorderly conduct" for blocking a major intersection, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said, adding that the events unfolded without major incident.
In addition to highlighting the US-led war on terrorism in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the convention is expected to devote significant time to domestic policy, and speakers -- including actor-turned-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and popular Arizona Senator John McCain -- have been chosen for their potential to sway undecided voters.
Democratic challenger John Kerry, respecting an American political tradition, is expected to soft-pedal his campaign during the Republicans` convention week.