NEW YORK CITY — President Bush won't show up at the Republican National Convention until Thursday, when he formally accepts the Republican nomination for president.

Good thing the Austrian-born California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't meet the requirements to be president, or it could have been over before then.

Schwarzenegger offered an electrifying performance Tuesday night, rousing the rafter-to-rafter crowd of Republicans into cheers of "Arnold, Arnold, Arnold" and "U-S-A" and "Four More Years."

It was a call for four more years for Bush, although the crowd could have been calling for four more years for Arnold.

"What a greeting. This is like winning an Oscar — as if I would know," Schwarzenegger said after he took the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, America is back, back from attack on our homeland, back from the attack on our way of life," he told the cheering crowd, drawing on his trademark "I'll be back" line from the popular movie "Terminator."

Arnold left no doubt that he supports Bush as the man to bring the nation all the way back.

"We are one America, and Bush is defending it for his heart and soul. He is leader who doesn't flinch, waver or back down," he said.

"He gave the perfect speech for this crowd," said Utah Gov. Olene Walker, who cheered wildly with the rest of the Utah delegation. "He is an actor who knows how to work a crowd, he has great feel and energy. And his accent only endears him even more."

Schwarzenegger — a moderate if not liberal voice in the Republican Party — might seem like an odd choice for a keynote speaker at the national convention, which is dominated by conservatives.

But delegates, including those from Utah who disagree with his politics, were standing and cheering wildly, some even chanting, "No more girlie men, no more girlie men," a subtle reference to Democratic candidate John Kerry.

Not everyone in Madison Square Garden agrees with the Terminator, said Utah GOP Chairman Joe Cannon, particularly in the Utah delegation. "But no one is worried liberals are going to hijack the convention," he said.

And even if they don't agree with his politics, they like his style.

"Republicans like to say we have a big tent, but Arnold makes it a bigger tent," Walker said.

Indeed, Schwarzenegger pleaded with Republicans to make the tent even bigger.

"Just maybe you don't believe in this party on every issue and I say that's OK, because that's what great about this country," he said. "We can respectfully disagree and still be Americans and good Republicans."

Utah delegates — at least those who didn't skip out for the New York Yankees game going on at the same time — relished the one-liners and cheered rabidly for the body builder-turned-actor who never held office before becoming governor of California a year ago.