Bush: I make history

2004-08-29 16:14

New York - In an interview with Time magazine US President George W Bush has reflected on his role in the war on terrorism saying: "I'm not the historian. I'm the guy making history."

Asked what he learned from the past four years, Bush said he'd learned "that Washington is a much more bitter, ugly place, dominated by special interests, than I ever envisioned."

Meanwhile demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday to protest Bush's foreign and domestic policies as Republican delegates gathered to nominate the president for a second term.

A day ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention, about 250 000 demonstrators were expected to march up Seventh Avenue past the Madison Square Garden convention site in midtown Manhattan.

The protesters were denied a permit to demonstrate in Central Park, but many said they would go there anyway.

As the protesters gathered 20 blocks south of the convention site on Sunday morning, New York police said more than 300 people had been arrested through Saturday night for disorderly conduct and convention-related incidents.

Pre-convention polls showed the race evenly split between Bush and Democrat John Kerry, although the challenger has lost ground since his convention in Boston a month ago. The four-day Republican convention opens Monday.

- AP