‘Maverick’ to seek bipartisan fixes

St. Paul, Minn. —- Not merely a Republican. Not merely a candidate. John McCain cast himself as a leader for all Americans, regardless of party or status.

After several days of Democratic bashing by his supporters, the Arizona senator on Thursday struck a nonpartisan stance and promised that he wouldn’t be bound by political party in the White House as he accepted his party presidential nomination before thousands of GOP loyalists.

“We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other,” McCain told the Republican National Convention, deriding “constant partisan rancor” that causes Washington gridlock. He rejected those in Washington who he said “work for themselves and not you.”

“I don’t work for a party,” he declared. “I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”

With the race against Democrat Barack Obama competitive and just two months to go, the GOP nominee was making an aggressive play for voters from across the political spectrum: Republicans, independents and Democrats alike who are frustrated with partisan infighting that hinders progress.

Even as he preached bipartisanship, McCain served up standard Republican positions to the willing crowd on abortion, taxes, national security, oil drilling and education. His trick was to appeal to his conservative supporters without turning off independents.

Seeking to give voters wary of Obama an acceptable alternative, McCain praised his Democratic rival and said that Obama’s supporters had his respect and admiration.

“But let there be no doubt, my friends, we’re going to win this election,” McCain said, “and after we’ve won, we’re going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again, and get this country back on the road to prosperity and peace.”

McCain told an arena filled with the GOP’s most faithful supporters that he’s repeatedly worked with members of both parties to fix the country’s ills.

“That’s how I will govern as president,” he said. “I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”

It was a rare mention of his Democratic rival; McCain used his name only six times. And he mentioned the words Republicans and Democrats mainly in tandem, urging the two sides to work together and trying to show how he was unafraid to take on both parties to force change.

Still, for all the talk of reaching across the aisle, McCain got in jabs at Obama.

He said Obama would raise taxes, increase government spending and eliminate jobs. He criticized Obama on energy, health care and education policies.

The audience was clearly hungry for it: It booed Obama after every criticism, though there were relatively few.

McCain mostly refrained from the brass-knuckled rhetoric that marked Obama’s speech exactly one week earlier.

Perhaps the Republican’s sharpest hit came without even a mention of his Democratic rival.

“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.”

The Arizona senator also issued a warning “to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming.” That, too, was an indirect Obama reference. McCain has suggested his Democratic rival puts personal ambition above the country.

Early on in his 50-minute address, protesters inside the hall interrupted McCain’s address a few times, but on each occasion the crowd shouted them down with chants of “USA, USA.” McCain himself was unfazed, telling the audience, “Americans want us to stop yelling at each other.”

A former Vietnam prisoner of war, McCain pointed to his 5 1/2 years in captivity as a life-changing turning point.

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

McCain, not known as a big speechmaker, spoke from a podium transformed to put him more in touch with his audience. Delegates were not only in front of him, but to both his left nad right as he stood on a low platform before a giant video screen displaying patriotic scenes. Smaller screens on either side showed Republican viewing parties around the country, including one in Sandy Springs.

Before McCain’s speech, leading figures in the Republican Party offered a case against Obama, attacking what they said was his lack of experience, portraying him as someone whose main talent was giving a good speech, and assailing his opposition to the troop escalation in Iraq that McCain long championed.

Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania and the first head of homeland security, contrasted what he said was Obama’s record and that of McCain. “It’s not about building a record —- it’s about having one,” he said. “It’s not about talking pretty. It’s about talking straight.”