HILADELPHIA - A quartet of war heroes blessed the candidacy of Governor George W. Bush of Texas last night, attempting to lend their authority on military matters and foreign affairs to a relative neophyte whose own military service never went beyond the Texas Air National Guard.
One of those heroes, Arizona Senator John S. McCain, set aside his hurt from the primaries to heap praise on the man who had bested him.
''If you believe patriotism is more than a sound bite, and public service should be more than a photo-op, then vote for Governor Bush,'' he said in prepared remarks. ''My friend, Governor Bush, believes in an America that is so much more than the sum of its divided parts. He wants to give you back a government that serves all the people no matter the circumstances of their birth.''
McCain echoed the overarching theme of the convention, noting that Bush wants to unite the nation, to bridge it, not divide it - not by color, not by race, not by wealth, religion, or politics.
''I support him. I am grateful to him. And I am proud of him,'' said McCain, a former Naval aviator who spent 51/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
But McCain's speech also was notable for what he did not say. He left out any mention of his signature issue on which he disagreed with Bush during the primaries: the overhaul of campaign financing and the elimination of unlimited ''soft money.'' Indeed, the convention is taking place amid a sea of special interest money, with corporate sponsors pouring in millions of dollars.
But the strong praise for Bush, and a fond walk down memory lane through Operation Desert Storm, came as tensions between Democrats and Republicans entered into the realm of the personal yesterday. While Vice President Al Gore was on vacation at the North Carolina shore, President Clinton derided Gore's opponent.
''Near as I can tell, the message of the Bush campaign is just that: `I mean how bad could I be? I've been governor of Texas, my daddy was president. I own a baseball team. They like me down there,''' Clinton said.
That and other remarks provoked both President Bush and Governor Bush to respond with more than the campaign's usual dismissiveness.
''I welcome President Clinton's criticism,'' Bush said. ''He is so desperate to have his legacy intact by getting Al Gore elected, he'll say anything, just like Al Gore will.''
In an NBC interview, President Bush threatened to let Clinton have it if he does not soften his tone.
''I'm going to wait a month. ... If he continues that, I'm going to tell the nation what I think about him as a human being and person,'' the elder Bush said.
Night Two of the Republican convention also featured tributes to Presidents Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford - the three living GOP former presidents.
Bush and Ford watched the tributes from their box seats. With the 89-old Reagan suffering from Alzheimer's disease, his wife, Nancy, traveled from California and made an emotional appearance in his stead.
The focus on the three former presidents underscored the evolution of the Republican Party. Having shifted well to the right in recent years, the GOP now is an amalgam of Reagan, who remains the conservative soul of the party; of Bush, whose ''kinder, gentler'' refrain from 1988 reverberates in his son; and of Ford, whose former chief of staff, Dick Cheney, is the GOP vice presidential candidate.
As the delegates moved from Monday's focus on children and education to yesterday's accent on the geopolitical, the tone shifted from serious to stern. Republicans have long complained that the Clinton administration has allowed the military to dangerously disintegrate, with morale plummeting, recruitment lackluster, and readiness unreliable at best.
''This nation does not want four more years of Clinton-Gore,'' Bush told a rally in Charleston, W.Va. ''This nation wants somebody who will restore the military strength of the United States of America.''
Besides McCain, the delegates heard from retired General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the military response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Schwarzkopf, who served two tours of duty during Vietnam and was wounded twice, addressed the gathering by satellite from aboard the USS New Jersey, a battleship turned museum across the river in Camden.
''We should never forget the heroic dedication of the 540,000 American fighting men and women who won that magnificent victory in the sand,'' Schwarzkopf said of the Gulf War. ''They were both active duty and reservists who willingly answered the call to duty that disrupted their lives.''
But Schwarzkopf's address also underscored an unintended outcome of the Gulf War. He spoke on the eve of the 10th anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, at a time when President Saddam Hussein remains in power in Iraq. The Bush administration, while never intending directly to remove Hussein, had assumed that he would be ousted by his enemies within.
Bob Dole, the unsuccessful 1996 GOP presidential nominee and 1976 vice-presidential nominee, focused on a tribute to his fellow World War II veterans and mentioned Bush only briefly, saying in remarks prepared for delivery, ''We look to Governor Bush and Secretary Cheney to raise our sights, and to restore honor and civility to our public life.''
Bush received kind words as well from Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska senator and decorated veteran of Vietnam who backed McCain during the primaries. And to kick off the evening, Everett Alvarez, the first American aviator shot down over North Vietnam in 1964, led the Pledge of Allegiance. Alvarez, another McCain supporter, spent 81/2 years as a prisoner of war at the ''Hanoi Hilton,'' a place of degradation and torture.
Predictably, Democrats knocked the endorsements as a desperate attempt to prop up a candidate who is weak where a president must be strong.
''It's an amazing day when the Republican Party, with its traditional advantage on military and foreign affairs, feels they have to shore up their candidate,'' said Joe Andrew, co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
And not surprisingly, Andrew said it would not work. ''It's clearly not transferable,'' he said.
Nevertheless, McCain is known to speak his mind, regardless of the trouble it may bring. During the primaries, for example, he questioned Bush's experience and intellectual preparedness amid reports of the tutorials the governor was receiving on foreign affairs.
''There comes a time when our nation's leaders can no longer rely on briefing books and talking points, when the experts and the advisers have all weighed in, when the sum total of one's life becomes the foundation from which he or she makes the decision that determines the future of our democracy,'' McCain said then.
Last night, however, his tune had changed considerably after he had weighed the choices - Bush or Gore.
''I think each of us senses that America, for all our prosperity, is in danger of losing the best sense of herself: that there is a purpose to being an American beyond materialism,'' McCain said. ''Cynicism is suffocating the idealism of many Americans, especially among our young. And with cause, for they have lost pride in their government.''
Bush, he said, would restore that pride and restore principle over politics.
''George Bush believes in the greatness of America and the justice of our cause,'' McCain said. ''He believes in the America of the immigrant's dream, the high lantern of freedom and hope to the world. He is proud of America's stature as the world's only superpower, and he accepts the responsibilities along with the blessings that come with that hard-earned distinction.''
In keeping with the gathering's push for diversity, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, an openly gay Republican congressman; Elizabeth Dole, the former labor and transportation secretary; and Condoleezza Rice, the African-American foreign policy specialist, all took to the podium to praise Bush's policies on international trade and foreign policy, too.
During the night's roll call, Massachusetts did not unanimously support Bush. The delegates cast 35 votes for Bush, one for McCain, and one person abstained.
