HILADELPHIA - In a strategic appeal to minorities, moderates, and women, the Republican National Convention kicked off a four-day extravaganza yesterday celebrating the nomination of George W. Bush. Retired General Colin Powell told the delegates that many blacks are cynical about the party's opposition to affirmative action, but he said the Texas governor can ''bridge our racial divides.''

Bush's wife, Laura, told an adoring audience that her husband is a man of principle whose presidency would be marked by compassion and a new drive to increase childhood literacy. ''You know I am completely objective when I say you have made a great choice,'' Mrs. Bush said.

Hours after approving a platform that supports neither affirmative action nor abortion rights, the GOP delegates gave a resounding reception to Powell even though the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pointedly told them he supports affirmative action. Powell also supports abortion rights, but he did not mention the issue last night.

''We must understand the cynicism that exists in the black community,'' said Powell, the party's most prominent black. ''The kind of cynicism that is created when, for example, some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousand black kids get an education, but hardly a whimper is heard from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our federal tax codes with preferences for special interests.''

Though his audience included many lobbyists, the applause for Powell's tough talk was deafening.

Bush spokesman Mindy Tucker said: ''Bush supports affirmative access, he supports equal opportunity, he does not support quotas.'' She noted, as did Powell, that Bush backed a bill guaranteeing that the top 10 percent of Texas students have access to state universities. Bush has long declined to get into a debate over affirmative action, preferring to discuss the issue on his terms.

Laura Bush, who said she agreed to marry her husband on the condition that she wouldn't have to deliver a political speech, was the other star of the night, joking about how she is dealing with the departure of her twin daughters for college.

''They say parents often have to get out of the house when their kids go off to college because it seems so lonely ... but I told George I thought running for president was a little extreme,'' she said.

Turning serious, Mrs. Bush coupled her passion for childhood reading with her husband's political ambitions. ''One of the major reasons George is running for president is to make sure every child in America has that same opportunity to grow up reading,'' she said.

The convention began a ''rolling roll call'' over several nights that will culminate in Bush's acceptance of the nomination on Thursday. There is no doubt about the outcome, with Bush having gathered enough delegates in the early primaries. His only major opponent, Senator John McCain, released 170 delegates this week.

In a carefully choreographed evening, scripted to the second in a made-for-television format, the Republican Party showcased its congressional candidates and its diversity. By design, the convention is devoid of the usual drama, with Dick Cheney having been selected last week as Bush's running mate and efforts to bring a platform fight to the floor easily defeated.

The result was a relentless focus on what party officials called an upbeat message, with the usual attacks on the Democrats replaced by a Republican outline of how the party proposes to ensure, in Bush's phrase, that ''no one is left behind.''

The question was whether Americans had left behind any notion of watching most of the convention. Polls showed that most Americans didn't intend to watch the show, at least until Bush speaks on Thursday. While the commercial television networks have trimmed their prime-time coverage, the media saturation is greater than ever, with 15,000 journalists reporting the events for cable news, Web sites, newspapers, magazines, radio, and live Internet ''chat sessions.'' Powell's speech was carried by the networks.

Powell energized the convention from the moment he stepped on the stage. Only an estimated 4 percent of delegates are black, compared with 13 percent of the population at large.

With a passion that had led many Republicans to urge that he run for president himself, Powell repeatedly underscored his point that the country has failed many of its children, especially minorities. He described seeing ''kids in utter despair ... destroying themselves with drugs ... who don't see a reason to believe in America.''

''Listen, listen!'' Powell said. ''Our children are not the problem. They are our future ... the problem is us if we fail to give them what they need to be successful in life.''

Some of the African-American delegates said they hoped this year would be a turning point. Victor Clark Jr., a black delegate from Baltimore, said, ''We haven't done our job'' in attracting blacks to the party. ''With Bush at the top of the ticket, we can get close to 25 percent'' of the black vote, Clark said.

Asked how, Clark said that blacks will realize that they are being taken for granted by Democrats and that their economic situation has not improved as much as it could. ''They will be asking, `Why isn't it working to be a Democrat?'''

Geraldine Sam, one of two blacks in the Texas delegation, epitomizes that strategy. She is a former Democrat who disagrees with Bush on two important issues. She backs affirmative action and wishes the governor would sign a hate-crimes bill. But she said she switched to the GOP after being impressed at Bush's appointment of blacks to state positions.

''We agree to disagree'' on some issues, said Sam, a 48-year-old kindergarten teacher. She backs the governor ''because I love him.''

But there was no love lost between abortion-rights advocates and the Bush campaign. The Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, having failed last week in its effort to remove the antiabortion plank from the platform or weaken it, failed yesterday in its effort to bring the issue to the floor. It would have taken a majority of delegates in six states to do so, and the Bush campaign successfully lobbied against such a move.

Earlier in the day, vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney arrived in the hall to cheers. Democrats, meanwhile, launched a new attack on the former defense secretary for getting out of military service with deferments.

Cheney ''had other priorities in the '60s,'' said Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who has been mentioned as a running mate to Al Gore, alluding to a statement by Cheney explaining his draft record. ''So did a lot of other young men who went over there and didn't come back.''

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said Democrats ''have fallen into a full panic about this Republican ticket,'' and questioned why Harkin hasn't criticized President Clinton, who also avoided the draft.

As Cheney watched the speeches last night, he seemed to withhold his applause when Laura Bush said she would make early childhood development one of her priorities as first lady and would work to strengthen Head Start. Democrats have criticized Cheney for voting against spending on the educational program as a member of the House from Wyoming.

In between the speeches of his wife and Powell, Bush made a satellite appearance from a campaign stop in Ohio. ''I can't wait to stand before you on Thursday night to tell America how I want to use these good times for great purposes,'' Bush said. Hinting that Powell would serve in his Cabinet, Bush said: ''I hope his greatest service to America might still lie ahead.''

The Democratic National Committee continued to try to cut through the rhetoric. The DNC unveiled a Web site called www.iknowwhatyoudidintexas.com, a spoof of a popular horror movie. The victims, according to the Democrats, are 200,000 children denied health insurance by Bush. Features include ''the daily bleed'' and ''scary record.''

Globe Staff writers Anne E. Kornblut, traveling with Bush, and Glen Johnson in Philadelphia contributed to this report.