ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Sen. John McCain claimed the Republican party nomination he has sought for almost a decade by pledging to rise above Washington's acrimony as president and strike a new tone by reaching across partisan divides.

John McCain accepted the Republican Party's nomination to be its presidential candidate and vowed he'd bring change to Washington, DC. Video from Fox News. (Sept. 5)


"The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't a cause, it's a symptom," Sen. McCain. "It's what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you." (Read the speech)

It's a theme he has pressed for months on the campaign trial. Across the convention hall, the words "country first" were on display.


His bipartisan spirit extended to an early tribute to his foe this fall, Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama. "We'll go at it over the next two months," he said. "That's the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us." But, he added, "you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us....I wouldn't be an American worthy of the name if I didn't honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement."

And he stuck to his theme when his remarks were interrupted early on by two protesters. The crowd began shouting "USA! USA!" to silence the protesters. "Please don't be diverted by the ground noise and the static," he told the crowd, chuckling. "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other, OK?"

John McCain at the Republican convention. Reuters

Delegates in the house seemed more subdued during most of his speech than they were a night earlier for Gov. Palin's address. But they came to life at the end, drowning out Sen. McCain as he urged them to "stand up, stand up, stand up and fight!" And perhaps thinking of his own election in this Democratic-leaning year, he said, "Nothing is inevitable here."

Substantively, Sen. McCain, whose strength as a candidate is his national-security experience and expertise, spoke bluntly and at length of the economic concerns of middle-income Americans -- directly taking on the theme Sen. Obama increasingly has made the centerpiece of his campaign. "These are tough times for many of you," he said, "You're worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and are struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home."

Sen. McCain planned to leave St. Paul immediately after the speech with Gov. Palin for a campaign tour that starts in the battleground state of Wisconsin. He does so in better shape than beleaguered Republicans generally, but knowing that to win he has to reach beyond a shrunken Republican base to reach voters from both parties as well as independents. His goal now will be to woo important blocs of working-class males, suburban women, and independents in a handful of key states to win in November

In his overture to those voters, Sen. McCain openly criticized his own party's failings and its brushes with corruption. "You know, I've been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum," he said. "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."

Ultimately, though, winning over swing voters in middle America, many Republican strategists believe, will require coming up with a sharper message to speak to middle-class economic anxieties. Sen. Obama is tailoring his campaign to bore in directly on those concerns, particularly with his proposal for a middle-class tax cut.

The McCain response is that, by keeping taxes low and improving the investment climate, he will foster an economy that creates and keeps middle-class jobs, while the Obama plan of raising taxes on upper-income Americans and businesses will be a recipe for job killing. "My tax cuts will create jobs," Sen. McCain said last night. "His tax increases will eliminate them."

And he pledged to embrace the new global economy and make it work for middle-income Americans: "My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We're going to help workers who've lost a job that won't come back, find a new one that won't go away."

In the process, he didn't offer any new policy initiatives, but ticked off a series he has offered to address economic worries: doubling the child tax exemption to $7,000 from $3,500; expanding community college training for workers who have been displaced; and an ambitious program to lower energy prices by drilling for more oil, building more nuclear power plants and developing clean-coal technologies.

But campaign aides acknowledge that they still have work to do in crafting a more effective message to the middle class on economics.

Another key step in winning Democratic and independent voters weary of bickering in Washington, Republican strategists believe, is restoring the image of John McCain as an independent-minded politician rather than conventional Republican. That was the image his speech sought to cast.

Read the text of Sen. McCain's speech and compare it to other acceptance speeches.

"Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed," he said. "That's how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again."

He tried also specifically to contrast his experience and his record of bipartisan deal making -- which sometimes has left him at odds with the party regulars gathered here -- with Barack Obama's track record. In claiming the Democratic nomination last week, Sen. Obama declared that he is best positioned to transcend Washington's entrenched divides.

"I have that record and the scars to prove it," Sen. McCain said of his ability to work across divides. "Sen. Obama does not."

Republicans have controlled the White House for eight years, and Congress for most of that, but Sen. McCain is casting himself as an agent of change, an indication of the power that word holds in 2008. "Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: change is coming," he said.

Sen. McCain's effort to enhance his brand as an unconventional politician benefited from his surprise vice-presidential pick a week ago. His speech was staged to further the concept; he planned to speak from a stage reconfigured with the podium placed at the end of a runway jutting out into the audience, so he could accept the nomination surrounded by delegates in a town-hall-style setting.

The speech was preceded by a biographical video of a man whose personal story has long propelled his career. He was held in a Vietnam prison camp for five and a half years, declining an opportunity for early release because others had been held longer.


More on the Campaign

What the Candidates Said: Compare some memorable nomination acceptance speeches.
Obama's VP Pick: See highlights of Joe Biden's life and career, plus details on his political record.
McCain's VP Pick: See highlights of Sarah Palin's life and career, plus details on her political record.

As he moves ahead now, Sen. McCain's best hope for victory is to try to recreate, as much as possible, the electoral map that brought President George W. Bush re-election four years ago. That will mean, above all, hanging onto the key states of Ohio and Florida, the two cornerstones of any Republican victory.

Yet even if he can, that might not be sufficient, Republican strategists agree. The prevailing winds strongly suggest that several 2004 Bush states -- Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia or Nevada, for example -- could go Democratic this time.

So the McCain campaign hopes to build a firewall by turning a big state or two that went to the Democrats in 2004. Michigan is the most intriguing possibility, along with Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

Sen. McCain leaves the convention having advanced his cause on one key front: Gov. Palin clearly has energized the party's core of social and cultural conservatives.

Whether the convention has made much difference beyond that depends on how the nation digests both Sen. McCain's own speech and the Palin pick more broadly.

The new campaign hope, of course, is that Gov. Palin has a blue-collar appeal that will help hold Ohio and pull victory closer in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. "Her speech last night was clearly well received here," former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in St. Paul. "It was received well in many homes across the country. The issue is how many."

Initial readings suggested a huge audience was, in fact, watching Gov. Palin. More than 37 million viewers tuned in, just below the record of 38.4 million who heard Sen. Obama's acceptance speech last week.

Normally, though, a vice-presidential pick matters mostly in the margins, and Republicans acknowledge the road to victory is uphill.

Sen. McCain trails in most national polls, though by a modest margin. But underlying the short-term poll movements, there has been a longer-term drift of voters into the Democratic column. When a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll asked voters in August 2004 whether they considered themselves Democrat or Republican, they split evenly between the parties. Now, the Democrats have a nine-point edge on party identity.

That means Sen. McCain has to maximize the advantages he does enjoy with a few voting groups. The first is working-class white males, who have proven more resistant than other traditionally Democratic groups to the Obama appeal; in the latest Journal/NBC News poll, Sen. McCain wins by 58% to 30% among them.

The second target group is suburban women, who are more evenly divided between the two candidates. Among questions here: How many would have gone to Sen. Hillary Clinton had she been the Democratic nominee, and how many can be persuaded to cross over to the McCain-Palin ticket?

The third key group is senior citizens, who have emerged as Sen. McCain's answer to all those energized young voters going heavily for Sen. Obama.

The campaign set up the hall to make his address feel as little as possible like a standard acceptance speech and structure it in the town-hall format where he feels most comfortable. Sen. McCain's speechwriters, primarily longtime aide Mark Salter, who wrote the convention speech, often spun beautiful words that fall flat. Reading a speech has never been Sen. McCain's strong suit.

This summer the campaign almost completely did away with prepared speeches and surrounded Sen. McCain with voters. "This has been the hallmark of how he's campaigned in the past year and why he's succeeded," Mr. Salter added.

One Republican concern is that, in other ways, Sen. McCain has drifted away in recent months from the "maverick" reputation he long cultivated. On policy questions, where he once almost relished bucking his party, he has moved closer to the mainstream Republican view on a number of issues.

He embraced Bush tax cuts he once derided as tilted to the rich. He has decided the comprehensive immigration reform he fought for must wait until the U.S. has secured its borders.

Sen. McCain has also reversed a previous position to speak out for offshore oil drilling, citing high gasoline prices. He has made amends with religious-right leaders he once denounced as "agents of intolerance," saying he believes in reconciliation.

He has also taken steps to distance himself from the deeply unpopular President Bush. But Sen. McCain made a point of thanking him Thursday. "I'm grateful to the president of the United States for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and keeping us safe from another attack many, many thought was inevitable."

Stylistically, Sen. McCain's become more disciplined and better at staying on-message. To prevent him from straying from the daily topic, the campaign no longer invites national reporters onto his bus for his vaunted "straight talk."

At convention's end, though, it appeared that the campaign was eager to replace his "straight talk" brand with a label as a fighter. He closed his remarks by bringing the crowd, which had been more quiet for much of the night than it was during his running mate's speech Thursday night, to its feet with this cry: "Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight for what's right for our country. "

Write to Gerald F. Seib at and Laura Meckler at