NEW YORK, Aug 29 (AFP) - The speeches will be ringing, the music upbeat. But for all its gaudy pageantry, the Republican convention here will be haunted by the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that scarred the national psyche.
President George W. Bush has made no bones about staking his claim to re-election on his response to the Al-Qaeda onslaught that left nearly 3,000 people dead at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
It's no coincidence the Republicans chose New York to host their party fest for the first time in their 150-year-old history and booked a site just three miles (five kilometers) from Ground Zero.
Nor is it sheer happenstance that they scheduled the four-day extravaganza unusually late so Bush could accept the nomination for a new term just nine days before the third anniversary of the attacks.
"The reasons for doing that are obvious and there will be a good deal of talk about that," said Stephen Hess, a former Republican speechwriter and now a political analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Eric Davis, a professor of political science and presidential historian at Middlebury College in Vermont, agreed that "September 11 is to going to play big" at the convention opening Monday.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he (Bush) makes a visit to Ground Zero although it isn't scheduled," Davis told AFP.
New Yorkers still have trouble shaking off the memories of the two hijacked airliners that left the trade center's twin towers a pile of smoldering rubble and killed 2,752 people.
Any hint of either party exploiting the disaster for political purposes has gone down badly. When Bush ran an early campaign ad with a fleeting image of firemen around a flag-draped coffin, it touched off days of polemics.
With officials fearing new attacks aimed at disrupting this year's elections, many residents of this staunchly Democratic city are facing the Republican gathering with a sense of dread.
A New York Times/CBS News poll found 53 percent of locals either very or somewhat worried that terrorists could strike during the convention. Fifty-two percent wished the Republicans had picked another city for their gala.
Mention of September 11 doesn't always work to Bush's credit, especially after a national inquiry panel found major intelligence lapses before the attack and a poorly coordinated response to the strike.
Relatives of some of the September 11 victims opposed to the Iraq war planned to join the anti-Bush protests scheduled here. Another group, called "Ring out the Republicans," demonstrated at Ground Zero on Saturday.
But Bush still frequently uses September 11 as a political touchstone in his bitter, nose-to-nose battle with Democratic Senator John Kerry for the White House in the November 2 presidential election.
Campaigning as a self-described "war president," he pleads for continuity in the struggle against Al-Qaeda and accuses Kerry of a traditionally reactive military philosophy made obsolete by September 11.
"We will stay on the offense. We will defeat them (the terrorists) elsewhere so that we do not have to face them here," Bush said while campaigning in Ohio on Saturday.
"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."
The issue is a major strong point for Bush, whose overall approval rating is still dangling below 50 percent. A clear majority are happy with the job he has done on terrorism, even if most frown on his handling of the Iraq war.
So the Republicans are gearing to toast his record as commander in chief at the party's gathering in New York's historic Madison Square Garden.
"I think you'll see us talking at the convention about the president's strong leadership," said campaign manager Ken Mehlman.