ST. PAUL, Minn. -- President George W. Bush loomed large over cheering delegates at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, appearing on a giant video screen as he spoke from the White House, and many inside the hall said they believed historians would look back on the Texan's tenure in the White House more positively than Americans now view him in national polls.

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"He's a fine, decent, honorable man" who's getting a bad rap, said Missouri delegate Rebecca Rooney. While acknowledging that Bush's low poll numbers present a challenge to other Republicans, “move this as time goes by we're going to find out that he was a lot smarter than some people thought."

Unlike "fickle" politicians who "lack the courage of their own convictions," the president made the right decisions in the White House, especially about the war in Iraq and national security, without regard to how they might play in the polls, she said.

That was a theme that Bush himself embraced in his speech to the delegates. And he made it clear he expected GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain to act in a similar fashion.

"I've sat at the Resolute desk and received the daily intelligence briefings, the threat assessments and the reports from our commanders on the front lines," Bush told the delegates. "I know the hard choices that fall solely to a president. John McCain's life has prepared him to make those choices."

"We need a president who understands the lessons of Sept. 11, 2001," Bush said. "To protect America, we must stay on offense, stop attacks before they happen and not wait to be hit again."

Maryland's former Lt. Gov., Michael S. Steele, said that Bush "understood that we live in dangerous times," and he'll be remembered as "a man who tried" to do everything he could to protect the country.

Steele and many others invoked the legacy of the late President Harry S. Truman when talking about Bush's legacy. The two presidents hold the dubious distinction of having the lowest poll numbers of any U.S. president; Truman's job approval rating was 22 percent in the Gallup Poll of February 1952; Bush's dipped to 19 percent in February 2008.

Like Bush, "Truman took risks, regardless of the political consequences," said Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. And like Truman, Bush "paid a price."

"He's condemned for doing what he believes is best for the country, without worrying about the polls," said Wisconsin delegate Dr. Carl Toepel. "He's kept us safe since Sept. 11."

The fight against terrorism "is at the top of my list," added Washington State delegate Jane Milhans. And she suggested that Bush is being dragged down by matters beyond control.

"We don't hear about the good being done in Iraq" through the news media, Milhans said. And she laid the blame for the economy's woes at the feet of the Democratic-controlled U.S. House and Senate.

Actor John Voight, a Republican supporter making the rounds on TV interviews, also praised Bush for launching the Iraq war.

"The president will be remembered for creating democracy in a part of the world desperately in need of tolerance," he said.

Not everyone in the Xcel Center had such kind words for the president, however.

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr, now the Libertarian Party nominee for president, paid a visit to the RNC Tuesday and rapped Bush for being "obsessed with Iraq," and "squandering" military lives and taxpayers' money to fight the war.