McCain ready for battle
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- John McCain packed a stadium full of supporters into his 6-by-7-foot prisoner-of-war cell Thursday night, suggesting his harrowing life history proves he is the battle-scarred warrior who could keep Americans safe and shake up Washington.
"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," McCain said.
(AP)
"I loved 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."
For a second night, images of the Twin Towers crumbling on 9/11 were shown on a large video screen, and McCain said he could protect America better than his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.
"I have that record and the scars to prove it -- Sen. Obama does not," McCain said.
On the final night of the Republican National Convention, McCain's acceptance speech was briefly interrupted by two protesters who had infiltrated the hall and shouted, "Get the U.S. out of Iraq!"
McCain's cheering supporters tried to drown out the protesters by chanting, "USA, USA." As the hecklers were hustled out by security, a McCain supporter shouted, "Get out, Nazi!" and a smiling McCain told the crowd, "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other, OK?"
McCain faces an opponent in Obama with an intriguing personal story, but the Republican has his own powerful story of his 5½ years as a POW in Vietnam. It was told Thursday by McCain, his political supporters and his wife, Cindy.
"These are perilous times not just for America but for freedom itself," Cindy McCain said. "I think John was a hero in Vietnam," she said to big cheers from the delegates.
"But you know something? John thinks it was just his turn. And our son Jimmy, a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, served honorably in Iraq, as hundreds of thousands of other young men and women just like him are doing for America and freedom everywhere. The stakes were never more clear to me than the morning I watched my son Jimmy strap on his weapons and board a bus headed for harm's way."
Accepting his party's presidential nomination, McCain walked out on a new podium that put him in the center of the delegates, waving the arms he can't raise above his shoulders because of his war wounds. The image of a supersize flag waving behind him, he brought the delegates to their feet by plugging his choice for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
"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," McCain said to cheers. "And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming."
He promised to lower taxes, cut spending, shrink the government and promote a "culture of life."
McCain continued walking the tightrope he has throughout the campaign, thanking President Bush for keeping the country safe and protecting it from repeat terrorist attacks, but pointing out that sometimes he alone was willing to stand up to the administration.
"You all know, I've been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. 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," he said.
McCain promised to work across party lines, even reaching out to Obama supporters.
"Finally, a word to Sen. Obama and his supporters," he said as delegates booed Obama's name. "You know, we'll go at it over the next two months. That's the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, and that's an association that means more to me than any other.
"But let there be no doubt, my friends, we're going to win this election."
Later, closing his address, McCain brought delegates to their feet as he shouted, "We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history!"