WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush received a polite but decidedly cool reception Friday when he took time from the campaign trail to address a gathering of minority journalists about administration policies.
Applause at the Unity 2004 Conference of Journalists of Color was generally scattered and perfunctory. One heckler tried to interrupt him, shouting "shame on you" for "lying to the American people."
"You believe there ought to be diversity in the newsroom. I understand that," Bush said early in his remarks. "You believe there ought to be diversity on the editorial pages of America. I agree.
"I also believe there ought to be diversity in the political parties in America, and that's why I'm going to work hard to tell people my message, to tell people what I believe. And I believe that government should stand side by side with people and help them gain the tools necessary to realize the American dream -- not just some people, but everybody."
Asking that he be judged by results and not promises, Bush then rolled out his education-reform policies and programs to increase minority homeownership. A record number of minorities now own their own homes because of his initiatives, he said, and the achievement gap between white and minority students had narrowed because of his No Child Left Behind Act, which sets educational standards, requires measurement of an institution's teaching success and provides vouchers for students in failing schools to attend better educational institutions.
Tax cuts, he stressed, put more money in people's pockets to spend. They also benefited small businesses, which create the majority of jobs in the country, and as such minority business owners were steadily increasing in number.
Bush also noted he personally addressed the diversity issue in his administration, with minorities holding a number of key Cabinet-level posts.
Only the mention of increased minority homeownership appeared to garner a short and small burst of hearty applause, a stark contrast to the standing ovation challenger John Kerry received from the group Thursday in a speech in which he promised to foster more minority hiring in newsrooms and administration policies on healthcare and job creation and retention that would help alleviate minority unemployment and other community problems.
"Despite the legal gains -- and that journey isn't finished yet either -- America can't be fully America when man face barriers to living up to their God-given potential," Kerry said. "How, for example, can we accept a situation where 50 percent of African-American men in New York City are without a job? How can we accept the fact that one of every five African-Americans attempting to buy or rent a home faces discrimination?"
Kerry also took the occasion to criticize Bush's reaction to news on Sept. 11, 2001, that the World Trade Center in New York had been attacked. Bush at the time received the information while making an appearance and reading to children in an elementary-school classroom in Florida. Rather than get up immediately and leave, Bush took seven minutes to conclude the event before leaving.
Kerry said that showed indecisiveness and that Bush should have excused himself immediately.
In sharp questioning Friday, Bush totally rejected any notion of internment camps for Muslims and Arab-Americans given the war on terrorism and said Muslims had nothing to fear -- government investigations of suspects in Arab-American communities would be focused and targeted on specific individuals if evidence required it -- and that the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven would continue to govern law-enforcement actions.
He also defended himself against Democratic charges that the security-alert status in parts of New York, New Jersey and Washington were raised this week for political gain.
"You know, when we find out intelligence that is real, that threatens people, I believe we have an obligation, as government, to share that with people," Bush said. "And imagine what would happen if we didn't share that information with the people in those buildings and something were to happen. Then what would you write? What would you say?"
The government's terror-threat level was raised to "high" -- "orange" on the color-coded scale -- around some buildings in New York City, northern New Jersey and Washington following discovery of materials that indicated al-Qaida had gathered intelligence on buildings such as the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Much of the information, discovered on the computer of a terrorist suspect arrested overseas, was several years old, but the administration said there were indications surveillance on those sites had been updated. Also, new information from other sources solidified concern al-Qaida may try a new terrorist outrage in the United States during the runup to the November election.
After leaving the Washington Convention Center Friday, Bush flew to New Hampshire to continue his "Heart and Soul of America" campaign tour. Earlier in the week he paid visits to Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan and Texas.
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