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McCain tells convention, nation he'll bring change
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-05 11:43

He set about it methodically.

"After we've won, we're going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again," he said, and he pledged to invite Democrats and independents to serve in his administration.

He mentioned President Bush only in passing, as the leader who led the country through the days after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

And there was plenty for conservative Republicans to cheer -- from his pledge to free the country from the grip of its dependence on foreign oil, to a vow to have schools answer to parents and students rather than "unions and entrenched bureaucrats."

Delegates dance on the floor of the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, September 4, 2008. [Agencies]

A man who has clashed repeatedly with Republicans in Congress, he said proudly, "I've been called a maverick. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. What it really means is I understand who I work for.

"I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you."

Thousands of red, white and blue balloons nestled in netting above the convention floor, to be released on cue for the traditional celebratory convention finale.

Given McCain's political mission, it was left to other Republicans to deliver much of the criticism aimed at Obama.

In the race for the White House, "It's not about building a record, it's about having one," said former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. "It's not about talking pretty, it's about talking straight."

McCain invoked the five years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison. "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said. "I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's."

The last night of the McCain-Palin convention also marked the end of an intensive stretch of politics with the potential to reshape the race for the White House. Democrats held their own convention last week in Denver, nominating Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as running mate for Obama, whose own acceptance speech drew an estimated 84,000 partisans to an outdoor football stadium.


Former US Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, speaks with Carly Fiorina, former Chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard in a VIP box at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota September 4, 2008. [Agencies]

The polls indicate a close race between McCain and Obama, at 47 a generation younger than his Republican opponent, with the outcome likely to be decided in scattered swing states in the industrial Midwest and the Southwest.

Ahead lie the traditional major checkpoints -- presidential and vice presidential debates, millions of dollars in ads -- but also the unscripted, spontaneous moments that can take on outsized importance in the race to pick a president.

Before he spoke Thursday night, Cindy McCain recommended her husband to the crowd -- and the nation. "If Americans want straight talk and the plain truth they should take a good close look at John McCain, a man tested and true who's never wavered in his devotion to our country," she said. She called him "a man who's served in Washington without ever becoming a Washington insider."

Sen. Lindsey Graham also had a speaking slot, and he used it to criticize McCain's rival. He said Obama and the liberal group MoveOn.org were the only ones who didn't realize that Bush's decision to deploy additional troops to Iraq last year had succeeded.

Ridge's turn at the podium came after he had been mentioned prominently in speculation about a running mate.

That was an honor that went unexpectedly to Palin, the first female vice presidential candidate in party history, a 44-year-old Alaska governor virtually unknown nationally a week ago.