The Line Up: Monday
 
  10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.          
    Michael Bloomberg
Facing reelection next year in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, the mayor delivers a deliberately forgettable speech heavy with standard-issue New York boosterism—and notably free of the words “Republican” or “Bush.”
     
   
    Fernando Mateo
This up-by-the-bootstraps Dominican phenom made his name representing livery drivers and acting as an ethnic pitchman for local GOPers like Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki. Today, the hometown boy finally finds the national spotlight.
     
   
                 
  7:45 p.m. to 11:15 p.m.          
    Dennis Hastert
The blunt speaker of the House (who recently chastised New York officials for exploiting 9/11 for federal dollars) explains why the next terror attack is more likely to hit his home burg of Batavia, Illinois (population: 25,153) than the city hosting his party’s convention.
     
   
    Zainab Al-Suwaij
We were convinced the GOP would find a “liberated” 14-year-old Iraqi girl to sing the National Anthem, but instead, delegates will hear from one Zainab Al-Suwaij. An Iraqi woman and longtime foe of Saddam who was frequently showcased by Bush supporters as an Islamic voice in favor of the war, she heads the American Islamic Congress, which says it’s dedicated to “building interfaith and interethnic understanding.”
     
   
    Jason Sehorn and Angie Harmon
Don’t expect repartee worthy of William Powell and Myrna Loy, but the appearance of the former New York Giant and his Law & Order wife just might help GOP operatives add a dash of glitz to an otherwise charisma-deficient evening (Ed Gillespie, Bernard Kerik).
     
   
    John McCain
The much-maligned GOP maverick swallows his pride and tries to rally swing voters around the president. Tonight, he’ll offer up his Vietnam-era heroism in service of a dual mission; burnishing Bush’s credentials as an anti-terror warrior while stoking his own political chances for 2008.
     

   
    Rudolph Giuliani
In a speech that will refer to September 11 exactly 911 times, “America’s Mayor” will relive his defining moment in harrowing detail, alternating attacks on John Kerry with accounts of the president’s (and his own) heroism.
     

   
 

LEGEND
Pitbull
Designated Attack Dog
Big Tent
Minority/Woman
           
Bible
Right-Wing Christian
Siren
Terror Alert
Swing Set
Appeals to Swing Voters/Independents
           
Red Meat
Appeals to GOP Base
Crowned Elephant
Cabinet Member/Party VIP
   
 
 
Published on August 19, 2004.