Table of Contents: Sep. 6, 2004

10 QUESTIONS: New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the challenges of hosting the Republican Convention 8

LETTERS 10

NOTEBOOK

Russian plane sabotage; why the swift-boat story won't go away; Rumsfeld and the prison scandals; homophobic reggae gets a little too hot 15

MILESTONES: Terrorist charges in New York City; Elisabeth Kubler-Ross dies 20

JOE KLEIN: How phony issues help Bush and Kerry avoid real ones 21

COVER STORIES

YEA OR NAY This time the voters know Bush. Will that help or hurt his re-election bid? 24

INTERVIEW: Bush speaks out 38

ON THE STUMP: An exclusive TIME photo essay 45

INTERVIEW: Laura's turn 53

VIEWPOINTS: Krauthammer and Kinsley face off on whether the President deserves re-election 58

9/11 FOLLOW-UP: How's New York doing three years later? 62

WORLD

DISASTER AVERTED A first-person account from inside Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrine as peace returns to Najaf. Will it last? 65

SCIENCE

CATCH THE SUN NASA tries a daring scheme to retrieve solar particles 68

BUSINESS

RALPH REDUX? Designer Michael Kors aims to be on a first-name basis with American buyers 73

OLYMPICS 2004

THE WRAP-UP Against all odds, successful Games 76

ARTS

THE SCREAM CAPER Why no art is truly safe 82

FILM: The director of Monsoon Wedding takes on Thackeray 86

BOOKS: Post-9/11 novels 87

YOUR TIME

LIVING: Self-service checkouts; digitizing your kids' art 101

HEALTH: From bad to worse on high blood pressure; good steroids 102

TECHNOLOGY: Online college dating; virtual Roman war 105

PEOPLE: Ellen DeGeneres; Carville for kids; Matthews Band sued 107

ESSAY: Joel Stein drums up a tour of Republican rock musicians 108