ILWAUKEE - Passing the boarded-up businesses and shuttered homes with sagging front porches, Texas Governor George W. Bush came to this worn-out inner-city neighborhood yesterday much the same way he has visited other struggling areas with struggling people while campaigning for recognition as a different kind of Republican.
Day after day, Bush has been talking to minorities in places where Republican presidential hopefuls rarely venture. His message varies little from one place to the next as he stresses the importance of loving families, of the sustenance of faith, and of the need to give access to the American dream for ''every willing heart.''
Democrats eye these travels - from Cleveland to Detroit to East Los Angeles and points in between - with annoyance and skepticism. Political analysts view Bush's outreach to African-Americans and Latinos as nothing more than an attempted bank shot for independent, swing voters.
But that sort of speculation doesn't bother Bush, who seems genuinely moved as he listens to stories of drug-addicted fathers, of children abandoned at birth, and of welfare mothers leaving the government dole behind.
Yesterday, at a program called ''Faith Works,'' the subject was fatherhood, and the small and intimate audience was African-American. The private group helps men who are addicted to drugs or who are just out of prison to straighten out, find work, and return to their families as a breadwinner and role model.
Sometimes, Bush said, people need ''to remind dads that one of the most important responsibilities is to love your child with all your heart and all your soul.''
''It's the most important job any of us will have who are blessed to be a dad,'' he continued. ''The responsibility is showing up and holding your daughters and holding your sons, and of reminding them that if they aim high and make the right choices, America is meant for them.''
At a time when 25 million American children - four out of 10 kids - live in homes without fathers, Bush proposed a modest initiative to try to reverse the trend. He would ask Congress for $200 million over five years to give grants to faith-based and community organizations that try to strengthen the role of fathers.
The money could be used to help unemployed or low-income fathers leave welfare by providing job training, subsidized employment, and education. It could be used to promote better parenting and strengthen marriages through mentoring and classes. And the funds would also go toward a national campaign marketing the virtues of fatherhood.
Bush's relatively low-key proposals and his geographical choices for campaign stops don't always go over well in the community. Wisconsin state Representative Antonio Riley, a Milwaukee Democrat, branded Bush's visit a photo opportunity rather than a substantive attempt to alleviate the myriad problems of the inner city.
''When it comes to Governor Bush, he likes to talk the talk, but he doesn't like to walk the walk,'' said Riley, who is African-American. ''His concept of compassionate conservatism is one of rhetoric, but not substance.''
State Senator Gwendolynne Moore, chairman of the Black and Hispanic Caucus, is even harsher in her assessment of Bush.
''There's been a great deal of suffering,'' said Moore, of the poor neighborhoods in this old industrial city. She calls Bush ''paternalistic'' and says he is offering up ''platitudes,'' not solutions.
''There are very well-meaning people who can serve a handful of folks with the crumbs from the master's table, while at the same time the master is redistributing wealth away from poor children to everybody else,'' she said.
But others see Bush's efforts as smart politics and a way to differentiate himself from the Republican Congress that is viewed unfavorably in much of the country.
''For many years, the right and left in the United States has been defined at least in part by race,'' said David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. ''Someone who appears to be reaching out to minorities seems more left than right.''
That means that Bush would appear to be more moderate by reaching out to minorities, and therefore more attractive to middle-of-the-road swing voters, he said. ''It's not aimed at African-American voters,'' said Bositis, who noted that the vast majority of blacks vote for Democrats.
For his part, Bush traced the recent pattern in his campaign to his personal belief that while government has a role in revitalizing downtrodden communities it is the people themselves - people he likes to call the armies of compassion - who can transform souls.
''Those of us in positions of responsiblity must not only uphold the responsibility of the position, but must keep in mind how best to change society,'' Bush said. ''And it's one heart at a time. And that's why I'm here. This message goes beyond Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
''Hopefully,'' he continued, ''others are listening and will rise up and say, `I can help, too.' ''
