Republicans seek to energize White House campaign
Republicans sought to rally voters around John McCain and re-energize their White House campaign after losing precious time in the battle to beat the Democrats.
As the clock ticks on the November 4 elections, Republicans aimed to put their bid for the presidency back on track after being buffeted by Hurricane Gustav and a political storm swirling over vice presidential pick Sarah Palin.
The Republican National Convention got properly underway a day late in St Paul, Minnesota, spotlighting McCain's record as a Vietnam war hero in a bid to position him for victory over Democrat Barack Obama.
President George W. Bush, whose popularity has plummeted to near record lows, was to be only a sideshow, given less than 10 minutes via video link for his swansong with his party after eight turbulent years in the White House.
The Obama campaign has charged that Bush is merely passing the torch to a candidate who would offer four more years of "disastrous" policies, trying to saddle McCain with the president's legacy.
Polls suggest that Obama won a significant bounce after his historic convention in Denver when he became the first African-American to be nominated as the presidential candidate for a major US party.
And Republicans have struggled to recapture the limelight since Obama urged the nation to recapture America's promise before 80,000 people gathered in a Denver stadium and some 38 million television viewers.
Palin, 44, whose surprise choice as McCain's running-mate energized the party's core conservative base, is due to address the convention on Wednesday.
But she has lain low in St Paul since it emerged Tuesday that her unwed 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. The pro-life, devout Christian said her daughter, Bristol, would be marrying the child's father.
But the scandal, accompanied by other revelations of an alleged abuse of power and her bid to nail down federal funds for pet Alaskan projects, has ignited a storm of criticism.
She was already under fierce scrutiny amid concerns that as a first-term governor from Alaska she was a reckless pick, as she would be next in line for the presidency should anything befall the 72-year-old McCain.
Tuesday night loyalists sought to shore up the message that McCain, who has already had a brush with skin cancer, was the man for president.
Former Democratic vice presidential pick Joseph Lieberman, who split with his party over Iraq and now backs McCain's hawkish foreign policy, was to give the key prime-time address.
"What you can expect from John McCain as president is precisely what he has done this week: which is to put country first," he said according to excerpts.
"That is the code by which he has lived his entire life, and that is the code he will carry with him into the White House."
Fred Thompson, a former Republican presidential candidate and star of hit television crime drama "Law & Order," was to extol McCain as "the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought."
"Strength. Courage. Humility. Wisdom. Duty. Honor," Thompson said in excerpts of his speech.
And in a firm message of support for his former White House rival, President Bush argued that McCain was "ready to lead."
"We live in a dangerous world. And we need a president who understands the lessons of September 11, 2001: That to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen, and not wait to be hit again. The man we need is John McCain," said Bush, in excerpts from his speech.
Earlier Republicans rallied around Palin, as Democrats questioned the Arizona senator's judgment in his choice of running mate.
"America's excited and they're going to be even more excited once they see her tomorrow night. I'm very, very proud of the impression she's made on all of America and I am looking forward to serving with her," McCain said.
The White House also came to Palin's defense, warning the media not to "exploit" her daughter's pregnancy.
Obama meanwhile told CNN Monday that he had more experience than Palin, given that he was running a multi-person, multi-million dollar campaign, and she was a first term governor and former smalltown mayor.
In a Gallup daily tracking poll on Tuesday, Obama was at 50 percent and McCain was at 42 percent of voters, the first time the Illinois Democrat had attracted fully half of the vote.
AFP
