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ST PAUL, Minnesota: John McCain has accepted the Republican party's nomination in the race to succeed George W. Bush as US President. He has pledged to bring "change" to Washington if he and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin are elected in November.
Senator McCain was speaking at the culmination of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
He vowed to work with his opponents and end an era of "partisan rancor" in Washington, and said Senator Barack Obama does not have the experience necessary to become the next US President.
John McCain isn't the world's greatest public speaker and even the Republicans acknowledge that.
So they rebuilt the stage at the convention to give their candidate in the presidential election a chance to appear in a more informal, town hall-style setting in which he's said to excel.
When he arrived to accept the Republican party's nomination, he received a hero's welcome in keeping with the hero that Republicans say he is for his wartime service to the country in Vietnam.
Republican presidential candidate, McCain said: "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I love it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I love it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's".
And so Senator McCain said he had chosen to serve the country throughout his career.
He went into detail about his legislative record, his foreign policy experience and portrayed himself as a maverick, standing against the business-as-usual crowd in Washington DC.
"The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't a cause. It's a symptom. It's what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not for you. Again and again I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record. Senator Obama does not," said Mr McCain.
Of course neither does Sarah Palin, the woman McCain said is qualified to be the next vice president.
But one day after she electrified the convention, the man who thrust her into the limelight gave her a full-throated endorsement as a like-minded agent of change.
"I'm very proud to have introduced our next vice president to the country. But I can't wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer and advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: change is coming,” said Mr McCain.
The convention ended in time-honored fashion - balloons, confetti and a family tableau the Republicans are projecting to the nation.
Their message is that even though a Republican President has governed the country for the last eight years, the Republican party is the place for voters seeking change.
The Republicans hope John McCain and Sarah Palin have done enough to undo the bounce in the polls Barack Obama and Joe Biden scored after their convention in Denver one week ago.
From here on out the battle is fully enjoined, as the candidates race to election day which is in just two months time. - CNA/vm
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