It came near the start of George W. Bush's address to the Republican National Convention four years ago -- a brief description of an obscure American patriot who dismissed his brother's advice not to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Bush, then governor of Texas, told thousands of Republicans gathered in Philadelphia and millions of others watching his speech at home how Lewis Morris of New York had waved off warnings that he could lose his property.
"Morris, a plain-spoken founder, responded, 'Damn the consequences, give me the pen,' " Bush said. "That is the eloquence of American action."
Little noticed at the time, Bush's invocation of the uncelebrated 18th century leader now appears a harbinger of the presidency that would follow, say a number of historians, political scientists and speechwriters.
"Reading back, you can see: Here is a guy who intends to be bold and not incremental or timid -- and by God, that he has been," said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas who has followed Bush's political career for years.
"He also said in that speech that he would write 'not footnotes, but chapters,' and sure enough, he has -- for better or for worse."
As Bush prepares to give another acceptance speech Thursday in New York City, political observers will be poised to discern a roadmap for a potential second term.
A variety of analysts now look at the anecdote about Morris and other passages of Bush's first acceptance speech as signals of a presidency that would be both bolder and more partisan than most had predicted.
Partly because of that more doctrinaire style, they say, the Bush agenda outlined in the 2000 speech has met with mixed success -- with the president passing the income tax cut for all Americans as he promised, failing to advance Social Security reform that had been another top priority and winning sharply divided reviews for his reforms of public schools and Medicare.
Bush delivered his Philadelphia speech, of course, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks massively reordered priorities for the nation and its commander in chief.
While Bush today is a president preoccupied with national security, candidate Bush's acceptance speech scarcely mentioned foreign affairs, and then mostly to advocate a system to protect the U.S. from incoming ballistic missiles.
