McCain: 'I'll fight for American values'

Mr McCain said America needed to “catch up to history” and “change the way we do business in Washington”.

“Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight,” he said.

“Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight for what’s right for our country.“

Mr McCain, who will be the oldest first-term US president if elected in November, was speaking a day after his surprise running mate Sarah Palin electrified the convention floor with strong attacks on Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama, portraying herself as a “pit bull in lipstick”.

Several political pundits have since compared her with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Referring to Mrs Palin, Mr McCain said she would “shake up Washington” and that he could not wait to introduce her.

“Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd,” he said.

“Change is coming. We need to change the way government does almost everything.”

Mr McCain, who has spent more than two decades in Washington, said: “The constant partisan rancour that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom.

“It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you.”

He added that as president he would “reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again”.

“I have that record and the scars to prove it,” he said.

“Senator Obama does not.

“We’re going to finally start getting things done for the people who are counting on us – and I won’t care who gets the credit.”

It was a clear attempt to dismiss Mr Obama’s claim that Mr McCain would represent a third term of the failed policies of the Bush administration.

“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,” Mr McCain said.

President George Bush, one of the most unpopular presidents in US history, played a diminished role at this year’s convention in St Paul, Minnesota, appearing only briefly via satellite from the White House on Tuesday.

But Mr McCain did pay tribute to him “for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history”.

The Republican presidential nominee was briefly interrupted by anti-war protesters and the crowd chanted “USA, USA” in an attempt to drown out the demonstration.

Mr McCain received a rousing standing ovation when he talked about his experiences as a Vietnam prisoner of war, which he said had made him “hate war”.

“It is terrible beyond imagination,” he said.

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. 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.”

Mr McCain received some of the loudest applause of the day when he declared that a McCain presidency would “stop sending $700bn (€489bn) a year to countries that don’t like us very much” and would produce more energy at home.

“We will drill new wells offshore, and we’ll drill them now,” he said.

He also talked about national security, naming al-Qaida, Iran, and Russia, and said that, while he would work to establish good relations with Russia, “we can’t turn a blind eye to aggression and international lawlessness that threatens the peace and stability of the world and the security of the American people”.

“We face many threats in this dangerous world, but I’m not afraid of them,” he said.

“I’m prepared for them.”

Setting out his aims for low taxes, less government spending and more jobs, he criticised many of the Obama campaign’s policies, but also praised the 47-year-old Illinois senator and his supporters.

“We’ll go at it over the next two months,” he said.

“That’s the nature of this business, and there are big differences between us.”

But he added: “Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans.”

But he said: “Let there be no doubt, my friends, we’re going to win this election.”

Mr McCain’s political attacks on Mr Obama were also more measured than Mrs Palin’s.

“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,” he 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.”

Convention organisers moved the stage to centre of the hall for Mr McCain’s speech, with campaign aides saying he wanted a conversation with Americans, rather than to simply talk at them.

As tens of thousands red, white and blue balloons cascaded from high above the convention floor, Mr McCain and Mrs Palin were joined by their families on stage before walking into the crowd where they were embraced by the jubilant throng.

In style and presentation, it was a stark contrast to Mr Obama’s acceptance speech, which was delivered in front of a raucous crowd of more than 80,000 people on a stage featuring faux columns which resembled a Greek temple, but were meant to suggest the gravitas of a federal building in Washington DC.