While at first many regarded the Republicans' decision to bring their National Convention to New York as a goodwill gesture -- the convention will bring in more than $100 million in revenue for the city -- skepticism has steadily grown.

According to press reports, Republican officials hoped that during the event they could place the cornerstone of the proposed 1,776-foot spire at the focal point of the ground zero reconstruction. "We shouldn't be doing anything like laying a [9/11] cornerstone during the convention," says Maloney. Republicans later denied the reports.

For the GOP, hosting the convention in New York City "could send a message that Republicans are strong on national defense, which plays to their strength," says Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "But if it becomes too much of an issue -- is 9/11 being exploited? -- the president could end up on the wrong side of that and having to play defense."

Ariel Goodman, president of From the Ground Up, an advocacy group for small-business owners in Lower Manhattan, suggests that come next September, the post-9/11 New York City economy, and specifically the conditions in Lower Manhattan, will be in such poor shape, Bush will wish he weren't in town. That's because FEMA housing loans, which paid 100 percent of the rent and mortgage of 9/11 victims who could prove a 25 percent decline in income, will have ended, while payments for Small Business Administration loans handed out after Sept. 11 will become due.

"It's going to be a one-two punch over the next six to 12 months when we're going to see the real economic damage to New York City," says Goodman. "People who've been hanging on by a thread will be go belly up left and right, with a spike in store closings and bankruptcy protection filings. Then Republicans won't be able to claim a success and use the city as a political platform."

For Bill Harvey, a 9/11 widower whose wife of one month died on the 93rd floor of 1 World Trade Center, it's the potential spectacle he fears. "I'm going to be really upset if they try to politicize this thing," he says. But the Bush administration's use of 9/11 as justification for a war with Iraq has left him preparing for the worst. "Some events I think should transcend politics. And 9/11 is one of them. I'm skeptical of this administration, though, because it has shown that nothing is out of bounds for them."

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