America is passing through a crucial moment in its history and John McCain promised Monday in Atlanta to offer stark reasons why he is the leader the country needs.

McCain, who in less than three weeks will become the Republican presidential nominee, was in Georgia to raise money. And his campaign announced he did just that: More than $1.75 million was brought in from an event at the Marriott Marquis that lasted less than an hour.

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Jessica McGowan/jmcgowan@ajc.com

Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman greet supporters at Atlantic Aviation in Atlanta on Monday. They were en route to a fund-raiser at the Marriott Marquis.

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Jessica McGowan/jmcgowan@ajc.com

McCain and Lieberman arrive Monday at Atlantic Aviation.

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McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, had a special guest along for the trip: U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the former Democratic presidential candidate and vice presidential nominee now serving as an independent. Lieberman has endorsed McCain and praised him and Georgia’s top Republicans.

“I’m also proud to be here with these three great Americans, your two senators and a great governor, Sonny Perdue,” Lieberman said, referring to U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss.

Lieberman said it’s McCain, not Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who is ready to lead the country.

As for McCain, he, too, praised Perdue and the others, and spoke briefly of the nation’s energy crisis, the confrontation between the nation of Georgia and Russia, and the need to carry on the fight in Iraq.

The situation in Georgia, he said, is what makes this a seminal moment, “probably one of those seminal times since the end of the Cold War.”

Military action is not the answer, he said, but the country can pressure Russia by threatening its membership in the World Trade Organization and the G-8.

“We didn’t win the Cold War, as you well know, in a tank battle on the plains of Germany,” McCain said. “We convinced everybody in the world to join us in opposition to communism.”

McCain had kind words for Obama, but they were tinged with a promise of contrast.

“I respect his candidacy and I will always have admiration for what he has been able to achieve,” McCain said. “There are very stark differences for the future of our country and I will continue to share them.”

The crowd of more than 200 gave McCain a warm welcome. Each in attendance had given at least $2,300 to McCain’s campaign and up to $50,000 to McCain, the Republican National Committee and several state parties.

Not in attendance, according to the McCain campaign, was Ralph Reed.

Reed is the former head of the Christian Coalition. In 2006, he lost a bid for the Georgia GOP nomination as lieutenant governor after he was implicated, but not charged, in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in Washington.

Reed e-mailed supporters and friends to urge them to give to the McCain campaign and instructed them to send contributions directly to him. Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he sent the e-mail at the request of a campaign official and was given boilerplate language to use. He said he has no official role in the campaign or in this event, something the McCain campaign confirmed.

Reed has been a baton with which Democrats have attempted to beat McCain.

Before the fund-raiser, Georgia Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and state Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta) held a news conference to condemn the connection anew.

Kidd blasted McCain for only coming to the state to raise money and not to meet with regular voters.

“Instead of listening to Georgians, John McCain chose to talk with people who have given him thousands of dollars,” she said.

That includes Reed, Adelman said.

Reed, Adelman said, “has sold his influence with Christian conservative voters to the highest bidder.”

That was a reference to Reed’s work to mobilize evangelical voters against a casino that would compete with one operated by an Indian tribe client of Abramoff.