by Marc Carnegie
NEW YORK, Aug 29 (AFP) - More than 100,000 protesters marched through the streets of New York City on Sunday to vent their anger at President George W. Bush on the eve of his Republican party`s four-day national convention.
From war veterans to celebrities, and tiny tots to ageing hippies, the crowd braved punishing summer heat to unite in a noisy and passionate call to oust Bush from the White House when voters go to the polls on November 2.
"It`s the same kind of nonsense that we endured in Vietnam," said James Adams, dean of students at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, marching with fellow Vietnam veterans furious over the war in Iraq.
"It`s like deja vu for me," he said. "Based on lies, no enemy we can point to, and we`re fighting an insurgency we cannot defeat."
Katharine Poulton, 52, who travelled all night with her husband from Akron, Ohio, to demonstrate for better health care, said: "The countries we bomb take better care of their people than we do."
Demonstrators wound through the city for hours, streaming past the massive police and security barrage surrounding Madison Square Garden, the convention site where Bush will formally accept the nomination for president on Thursday.
"It was a massive protest against the Bush agenda," said Bill Dobbs, spokesman from United for Peace and Justice, the umbrella protest organisation that staged the rally.
He said more than 400,000 people turned out for the march, a figure which could not be verified, while police declined to give an estimate.
But New York`s Seventh Avenue was thronged with miles of tightly packed demonstrators. AFP reporters on the scene estimated the number at more than 100,000.
Anti-Bush filmmaker Michael Moore, "Lethal Weapon" star Danny Glover and veteran civil rights activist Jesse Jackson led the first wave of the march, which appeared to go off without serious incident.
"The majority of the country never voted for the Bush administration and it`s time to have our country back," Moore said.
Amid fears of a new terrorist strike here, security was ultra-tight for the convention, with some 10,000 local policemen deployed, as well as state and federal officers. Four police helicopters buzzed overhead during the march.
Police reported making 116 arrests on Sunday but gave no details beyond saying that most were for minor offfences. "Nothing very heavy," a spokesman said.
Although political feeling was high, the march often had the feeling of a street party or 1960s-vintage demonstration. Many people banged drums or danced.
Curious tourists snapped photos of the protesters from open-topped buses, while residents looked down on the crowd from apartment building windows.
Despite the heavy turnout, Republicans were upbeat as they readied to open a four-day gala on Monday that will formally name Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to the party ticket.
Cheney arrived for the convention on Sunday, welcomed by Republican New York Governor George Pataki and former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who won praise for calming the city after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"My job here this week and in the two months ahead is to tell people all across American how steadfast our president is," Cheney was quoted saying by local media at a ceremony on Ellis Island.
"He is exactly the leader we need for these times, and we need him for four more years," Cheney said.
With polls showing a close race against Democratic challenger John Kerry running neck-and-neck, Bush said in an interview with Time Magazine released on Sunday: "I`m the guy making history. I deal with problems as I see them and I think long range as well."
The first Republican convention ever held in New York comes at an opportune moment for Bush, who has grabbed back a narrow lead over Kerry in some polls despite a flagging economy and continued bad news from Iraq.
In addition to boasting of his record as a "war president," Bush was expected to sketch out a fuller vision of his plans if voters send him back to the White House for a second four-year term.
The Republican convention will also feature moderates such as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arizona Senator John McCain as key speakers to soften the party`s ultra-conservative image.
The convention, capped by Bush`s acceptance speech on Thursday, sets the stage for the start of the most intense phase of the presidential campaign.
In keeping with US political tradition, Kerry is expected to stay largely out of sight during the Republican convention.