McCain Accepts Nomination, Says He'll Fight to Restore Party Principles
Anti-War Protesters Disrupt McCain Acceptance Speech at Republican Convention
Republican Convention Rebounds After Rocky Start
McCain's nomination acceptance speech ends a Republican convention that got off to an unusual start when Hurricane Gustav blew away plans for a week of partisan choreography.
But conservatives opposed to abortion quickly became galvanized when vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin disclosed that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, keeping the baby and intends to marry the 18-year-old father.
Palin delivered a well-received speech Wednesday, watched by 37 million people, in which she introduced herself as the ultimate "hockey mom" Washington outsider.
While the speech was short on policy details, it was highly successful in rousing the conservative base with a skewering of the Obama "change" mantra, an attack on the media and an echoing of McCain's reformist principles.
One longtime Senate colleague of McCain's predicted he wouldn't be able to hold a candle to Palin's performance.
"Look, John is not a great orator," former Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, who often clashed with McCain as Senate majority leader, told ABC News.
"I just don't think he can top her. ... They won't be comparable," Lott said of McCain.
McCain, however, got big reactions from the crowd during his speech. Another wave of cheers and applause went up when Palin joined him onstage after his speech, standing with both of their families.
"When he started to tell his story in Hanoi and then ended with that ringing call to service, you could see the passion flowing through John McCain's veins," ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos told ABC's Charlie Gibson.
Dawn Gilbert, 65, a Republican delegate from Maine gave McCain high marks.
"The best John McCain's ever delivered, I'll tell you that!" she said, dancing with fellow delegates and swatting red, white and blue balloons as they fell from the ceiling.
McCain's Undercard Delivers Sharp Blows Against Obama
Before McCain took the stage for the keynote address, several Republican colleagues fired up the crowd with red meat speeches, sharply leveling criticism at the Democratic ticket.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., a longtime McCain supporter, reminded the crowd of McCain's support for the troop surge strategy in Iraq.
"Calling for more troops to be sent to Iraq was one of the most unpopular things John McCain could have done," Graham said. "Some said it was political suicide. But you know what? It was the right thing to do. Because losing in Iraq would have been a nightmare for America."
Slamming Obama, Graham added, "We know the surge has worked. Our men and women in uniform know it has worked. I promise you -- above all others -- al Qaeda knows it has worked. The only people who deny it are Barack Obama and his buddies at MoveOn.org. Why won't they admit it? Because Barack Obama's campaign is built around us losing in Iraq."
The penultimate address featured Cindy McCain, who introduced each of the McCain's seven children, before delivering a speech in support of her husband that was devoid of the biographical details that marked her counterpart Michelle Obama's speech to the Democratic Convention last week.
"It's going to take someone of unusual strength and character -- someone exactly like my husband -- to lead us through the reefs and currents that lie ahead. I know John. You can trust his hand at the wheel," Cindy McCain said.
She reminded the crowd her husband was captured in Vietnam in 1967 and held as a prisoner of war until 1973 where he was denied medical treatment and experienced torture.
"Forgiveness is not just a personal issue: It's why John led the effort to normalize relations with Vietnam retrieve the remains of our MIAs ... to bring closure to both sides. That's leadership -- national leadership. And it's leading by example," Cindy McCain said.
She also remarked on Palin's speech Wednesday, sending the crowd into a round of applause and cheers.
"John has picked a reform-minded, hockey-mommin', basketball shootin', moose huntin', fly-fishin', pistol-packing mother of five for vice president," Cindy McCain said. "And as a fellow hockey mom myself and a western conservative mother, I couldn't be prouder that John has shaken things up as he usually does!"
McCain and Palin will take their show on the road, traveling to battleground Wisconsin and several other key states over the weekend, kicking off a fast and frenzied final two months before election day.
ABC News' Ann Compton, Nitya Venkataraman, Jen Duck, Bret Hovell, Karen Travers and David Wright contributed to this report.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
