Bush Attends 9/11 Memorial

President Bush participated in a somber groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for a memorial dedicated to nearly 300 Nassau County residents who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Bush’s appearance at Eisenhower Park came on a day he devoted largely to improving his reelection chances in November.

The president spoke to a convention of evangelical Christians, held a forum on the economy and attended a $1.6-million fundraiser before returning to the White House.

Sept. 11 has been a sensitive subject for the president in recent days, as he was criticized for using images from the terrorist attacks in his campaign ads, a decision that some families of the victims saw as exploitative.

Bush had been invited to the groundbreaking by Ian Siegel, who heads the Nassau County 9/11 Memorial Foundation and serves as a top aide to Nassau County’s top Democratic office-holder.

The president did not speak during his appearance but spent more than half an hour greeting family members afterward.

Also Thursday, Bush continued to speak about his economic policy, which polls suggested is an area of political vulnerability.

In remarks at USA Industries, an auto supplies company in Bay Shore, N.Y., he said the country was pulling out of a rocky period that began with a recession in early 2001, and which was aggravated by the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We’ve overcome a lot, and our economy is growing,” Bush said, adding that he remained concerned about joblessness and a general sense of anxiety about the economy.

“There’s still more work to do,” he said. “There’s still people looking for work. There’s still people worried about the job they now hold.”

Touting the benefits of global trade, Bush added: “You hear talk about outsourcing. I’m as concerned about outsourcing as the next person. But the way to deal with outsourcing is to make America a better place to do business, not a worse place.” A protectionist policy, the president added, would lead to trade wars that kill American jobs.

In Washington, there was mixed news for the president’s economic agenda.

Bush’s leading candidate for post of “manufacturing czar,” Nebraska business executive Tony Raimondo, withdrew his name from consideration Thursday after Democrats accused him of outsourcing jobs to China. Democratic presidential hopeful John F. Kerry led the attack.

Administration and industry officials said Raimondo, who is head of Behlen Manufacturing Co., withdrew because of problems he would face winning Senate confirmation.

Bush’s message of economic optimism was fortified by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who told a House committee that “employment will begin to increase more quickly before long.”

Greenspan added that trade barriers were not the answer to the nation’s current worries about job losses and foreign competition. Greenspan’s caution on protectionism came one day after Bush, in a speech in Cleveland, attacked “economic isolationists” -- a group that Bush implied, but did not directly state, included Kerry.

Before leaving the White House, Bush briefly addressed via satellite television the annual convention of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, which includes 51 denominations and claims a membership of 30 million people.

During his speech, the president reaffirmed his commitment to “a culture of life” and his opposition to gay marriages.

The Sept. 11 memorial in Nassau County is expected to be completed in time for the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks in September. Among the dignitaries who joined Bush were New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Ernest Strada, the mayor of Westbury, N.Y., was waiting in line to attend the groundbreaking with his wife, Mary Anne. Their son, Thomas Strada, was on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center North Tower during the attacks. He was 41 years old when he died.

Ernest Strada said he had no problems with Bush using Sept. 11 imagery in his campaign ads or coming to East Meadow for the groundbreaking.

“It’s important that everybody in the country, led by the president, continue to remember what happened 2 1/2 years ago,” Strada said. “I think the memory of that has waned since it occurred.”

Rosemary Cain of Massapequa was waiting in line with a large poster of her son, George Cain, a 35-year-old firefighter who was killed on Sept. 11. “Anything that memorializes the victims of 9/11 is right and good,” she said.

She said she had little use for the debate about whether Bush’s use of Sept. 11 imagery was appropriate.

“It angers me that they are flapping over this,” she said. “President Bush displayed courage and tenacity. He deserves to be able to speak on Sept. 11.”

But Pat Kiefer, mother of a 25-year-old victim of the attack on the World Trade Center, said the government should have done more to prevent them.

“I will never vote again,” said Kiefer, who held an enlarged photo of her son. “I don’t believe any of the politicians.”