It's official: McCain nominated
ST. PAUL -- On a night when vice presidential pick Sarah Palin electrified their convention, Republicans on Wednesday officially nominated John McCain as the party's candidate for president.
The nomination came at the end of a rowdy GOP convention session of speech-making, during which Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden were portrayed as unready for the White House. The speeches were capped by an address from Palin that had the crowd roaring its approval.
Palin, Alaska's governor, said she would bring an outsider's views and freshness to the vice presidency if elected.
Calling out "the permanent political establishment" and the news media, Palin said she wasn't running for the office to seek their approval.
"Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country," she said
She also wasted little time before digging into the record of Obama, including his history as a community organizer in Chicago.
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer — except that you have actual responsibilities," said Palin, once the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
The governor portrayed Obama as a candidate of style, not substance.
"When the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... what exactly is our opponent's plan?" she asked. "What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?
"The answer is to make government bigger, and take more of your money, and give you more orders from Washington and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world."
"There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat means death, and that man is John McCain," Palin said. "It's a long way from the fear and pain and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office. But if Sen. McCain is elected president, that is the journey he will have made."
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