McCain to kick off final drive for presidency
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Republican presidential nominee John McCain begins his final drive for the White House with a jump-start from running mate Sarah Palin that cast the 72-year-old senator as the obvious choice for a nation hungry for change.
McCain was preparing a prime-time acceptance speech Thursday to the Republican National Convention. He was expected to review his career in public service -- first as a Naval Academy midshipman and wartime pilot and then as a 26-year veteran of Congress -- while drawing stark policy differences with Democratic opponent Barack Obama.
Democratic critics have questioned Palin's political experience as a small-town mayor and her less than two years as Alaska's governor, but she turned the tables Wednesday night by offering a searing, sometimes sarcastic attack on the opposing ticket.
Obama's own running mate, Joe Biden, complimented Palin on Thursday for delivering an impressive speech with skill but said that issues important to Americans were missing from her remarks.
"I didn't hear the phrase 'middle class' mentioned, I didn't hear a word about health care. I didn't hear a single word about what we're going to do about the housing crisis, college education, all the things that the middle class is being burdened by now," Biden told CBS' "The Early Show."
"There was a deafening silence about the hole that the Republicans have dug us into and any specific answers as to how the McCain-Palin ticket is going to get us out of that hole," Biden said.
McCain's speech was expected to provide the climax to the four-day convention at the Xcel Energy Center. His wife, Cindy, admitted Thursday that she was nervous about addressing delegates herself.
"I'd like people to know what makes me work and what makes me tick and who I am, what I'm all about and where I come from," Cindy McCain told "Good Morning America" on ABC. "I have an interesting story to tell as well in that it combines the two of us and makes us a couple and what we will represent."
Palin joined other Republican speakers Wednesday night in praising McCain as a man of character, a former Vietnam prisoner of war who had spent his early career in the military and had sought to change the ways of politics in Washington.
"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change," said Palin, toying with the central theme in Obama's campaign.
Palin's 19-year-old son, Track, ships out for Iraq next week with his Army unit. The governor was unflinching as she contrasted McCain's military record with a lack of armed service by Obama and Biden.
"There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat means death -- and that man is John McCain," she said.
Delegates witnessing Palin's political coming-out party had high hopes for her candidacy, especially after the 44-year-old faced the challenge of matching the star power of Obama. The 47-year-old Illinois senator accepted his nomination last week before a stadium crowd of 84,000 people in Denver.
"For too many times, we've brought knives to gun fights," said Chuck Gast, a delegate from Maryland.
When asked if Palin, a hunter, brought a gun to the fight, Gast said, "Yes, I think she brings a big gun -- like a moose gun."
Alaska delegate Ralph Seekins, who knows Palin personally, said she relished her prime-time audience.
"She's an attractive lady and that's disarming to a lot of people," he said. "At the same time, she's a very capable lady. We respect her in Alaska and we think as the rest of the country and the rest of the world gets to know her, they'll be the same."
In a nod toward party unity, McCain also gave speaking roles to three of his former political rivals.
The highest honor was accorded former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who used a taunting, rollicking address to accuse Obama and the Democrats of not learning the lessons of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Giuliani said McCain "will keep us on offense against terrorism at home and abroad."
Alluding to last week's Democratic National Convention, he added: "Of great concern to me, during those same four days in Denver, they rarely mentioned the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They are in a state of denial about the biggest threat that faces this country. And if you deny it and you don't deal with it, you can't face it."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Obama "ducked and dodged" when asked recently about the threat of Islamic terrorism. "John McCain hit the nail on the head," said Romney. "Radical violent Islam is evil, and he will defeat it."
Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, known for his wit and humor on the trail, rebuffed those who questioned Palin's experience.
"I want to tell you folks something," said Huckabee. "She got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=232470">Illinois delegates say Palin 'hit a grand slam' <span class="date"> [9/4/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=232439">Text of Sarah Palin's speech <span class="date"> [9/3/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/news/politics/convention/rep/">Complete convention coverage</a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://video.ap.org/vws/search/aspx/ap.aspx?t=s1179980883147&p=ENAPus_ENAPus&g=0903dv_rnc_mccain&f=ilarl ">McCain joins Palin on stage </a></li> </ul> <h2>Audio</h2> <ul class="audio"> <li><a href="http://portal.GOPConvention2008.com/filelibrary/audio/090308_palin.mp3">Sarah Palin's remarks</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>