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McCain presents case for leadership |
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By Aaron Blake
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Posted: 09/05/08 12:29 AM [ET] |
ST. PAUL -- John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday with a humble and magnanimous speech that culminated a roller coaster campaign and an even more harrowing life story.
The Arizona senator peppered his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with the occasional shot at Democratic nominee Barack Obama – including a veiled reference to Obama’s messiah-like image. But McCain’s offering was in stark contrast to Obama’s stemwinder speech against McCain last week.
McCain set the tone at the outset, saying the campaigns would indeed duel over the next two months, but he then went 20 minutes without mentioning Obama.
“We’ll go at it over the next two months; you know that’s the nature of the business,” McCain said. “But you have my respect and my admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans – an association that means more to me than any other.”
The 72-year-old war hero used most of the speech to lay out issue positions and his political philosophy, at times contrasting them with those of Obama. He also touched on the story of his years spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
He repeated several stump speech lines, including ones about making the authors of pork barrel projects famous and preferring losing an election to losing the Iraq war. Both still drew roars from the crowd.
But he also sought to create some separation from his party and historical allies of the GOP, including pharmaceutical and oil companies.
Perhaps the biggest applause line of the speech was when McCain promised to “stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much.”
McCain called the move towards energy independence the “most ambitious national project in decades” and knocked Obama and both parties for passing “another corporate welfare bill for oil companies.”
He also noted his work fighting corruption, and listed drug companies among those on the receiving end of his wrath.
His big and isolated salvo at Obama came in the closing moments, and it landed with force on the crowd at Xcel Energy Center.
“I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need,” McCain said. “My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”
McCain, who has said before that he is uncomfortable talking about his faith, mentioned God at several points throughout his speech.
Democrats have been aggressively pursuing faith voters and playing up Obama’s Christian faith.
“For reasons known only to God, I’ve had a few tough ones in my life,” McCain said. “But I learned an important lesson along the way: In the end, it matters less that you can fight. What you fight for is the real test.”
With his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, thrilling the crowd the previous night and quieting some questions about her candidacy, McCain devoted just a few moments to her qualifications.
He noted her executive experience and praised her work on energy independence and corruption.
“She knows where she comes from, and she knows who she works for,” McCain said. “She stands up for what’s right, and she doesn’t let anyone tell her to sit down.”
Having apparently rallied the base with his Palin pick, McCain was liberated to emphasize his independent credentials, saying he would work across the aisle and that he works for the people instead of his party.
And he continued to suggest that his party has strayed from its moorings.
“The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics,” he said.
He made no mention of the illegal immigration compromise bill he authored, which turned off so much of the GOP base. Instead, he offered only a brief mention of the “Latina daughter of migrant workers” and ambiguously said that everyone deserves a chance to contribute.
McCain entered to a dark stadium with a blue sunrise on the massive video screen behind him. As the lights came on, McCain ascended to a podium set in the middle of the crowd, much like Obama at Denver’s Invesco Field a week prior.
A lone protestor booed him as he accepted the nomination, shouting and holding an anti-war poster. He was not immediately escorted from the arena and remained standing two levels up behind the press tables, interrupting the speech briefly once more.
A copycat was later shouted down with chants of “USA, USA, USA.”
“My dear friends, please don’t be diverted by the ground noise and the static,” McCain said. “Americans want us to stop yelling at each other.”
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