NEW YORK – Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention were urged Thursday to place the United States economy in perspective when they return home to solicit votes for President Bush.

Bush did not carry Maine four years ago in his campaign against Al Gore, and Democrats perceive the national economy as a weak point they can exploit in the presidential campaign.

During a breakfast meeting hosted by Sen. Olympia Snowe for Maine delegates at the W Hotel in New York, White House Budget Director Josh Bolten emphasized that the United States’ economy was in recession when President Bush assumed office and was threatening to descend into a deepening spiral. Factor in the heavy human toll and extraordinary economic costs of the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the outlook became even more bleak.

“It’s extraordinary how far we’ve come,” Bolten said. “Most countries would be flat on their backs at this point, and it’s a great credit to the leadership of this president, a Republican Congress and the American people that the economy is in as good shape as it is today given the challenges of the last few years.”

Bolten credited the tax cuts put in place by the president as primarily responsible for ensuring that the recession “was one of the shortest and shallowest in history.”

“[It] put us into the situation today where we can say we are on the path of steady, stable growth economically looking forward,” he said. “But we have much more to do. The president’s view is that if there’s anybody in America looking for work who can’t find a job, that’s one unemployed person too many.”

Citing the latest economic figures, Bolten said the United States had experienced the strongest economic growth the country had seen in 20 years and that the United States has charted the best economic growth of any major industrialized nation in the world today. While unemployment hovers nationally at 5.5 percent, Bolten said the figure was still lower than the average statistics of the last 30 years. Fueled by low mortgage and interest rates, Bolten said home ownership is at an all-time high.

“So when you hear Democrats try and talk down the economic situation to make the case in a political campaign for change, the truth is that the economic situation is extraordinarily good taking into mind what the president inherited 31/2 years ago,” he said.

John Cashwell, a delegate from Bangor, agreed that the overall economic landscape had to be considered but acknowledged that improvements in Maine are sometimes difficult to gauge.

“Sometimes they say that in Maine when times are good we don’t know it, and when times are bad we don’t know it,” he said. “But I think our unemployment rate is lower than the national average, and I think if people want to work in Maine, there are jobs out there.”

The president’s tax cuts were instrumental in moving the economy forward, according to Brewer delegate Jim Donnelly.

“Because of the tax cuts, jobs are being created again,” he said. “We are recovering, and things are getting better. President Bush will accelerate that process over the next four years.”