Buoyant Republicans ready for 60-day fight

After party conventions that produced thrills, spills and television ratings in America higher even than for the Olympics, the two runners for the White House, Barack Obama and John McCain, today set forth on the final sprint in a race that promises to make history however it turns out.

For sixty days and sixty nights, voters across the United States will be courted by two men both peddling messages of change but each with starkly different backgrounds and political philosophies. One ticket would give America its first black president, the other its first woman vice president.

What happens will say much about where the US stands – a land either disillusioned enough to take a forward-looking gamble on an inspiring but untested leader from the opposition Democrats or too nervous not to settle even grudgingly for familiarity and safety with the ruling Republicans. The campaigning – and the coming blitz of advertising – will be concentrated most heavily in a few familiar battleground states. Buoyed by their convention in St Paul, Minnesota, Mr McCain and his newly minted running mate, Sarah Palin, today hit the stump in Wisconsin and Michigan.

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No longer forlorn, Republicans left St Paul enthused, thanks in large measure to the pick of Mrs Palin and the speech she gave on Wednesday. New TV numbers tonight showed that 37.2 million Americans tuned in to watch, only a million less than the audience for Mr Obama.

Not famous for oratory, Mr McCain delivered a pugnacious speech in St Paul, using the word “fight” 43 times. “Fight with me,” he concluded before the traditional blizzards of balloons and confetti. “Fight for what’s right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all...Stand up, stand up, stand up, and fight.”

Senator McCain seemed to connect best with his audience when he linked his suffering as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam with his self-declared love of country and of public service. “I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” he said to thunderous cheers. “I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

The economy again took centre stage today as the government said unemployment had reached a 5-year high of 6.1 per cent. Both candidates seized on the numbers.

“When our economy is hurting, the last thing we should do is raise taxes as Barack Obama plans to do and has done,” Mr McCain said today after the release of jobless numbers. Mr Obama countered quickly. “John McCain showed last night that he is intent on continuing the economic policies that just this year have caused the American economy to lose 605,000 jobs. Democrats think that the focus on the economy will give them an edge and accused the Republicans of producing a convention that bothered only to attack them and to build sentimental, chest-beating biographies of their candidates while giving short shrift to actual issues, the economy included.

The Obama ticket, meanwhile, has signalled that it means to stick by a strategy of competing in a much wider range of states than in previous election years. While Mr Obama and running mate Joe Biden will defend Democrat states that could be vulnerable to a McCain offensive, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, they will also work to capture Republican territory in states like Colorado and Virginia.

A first dividend of the Palin choice for Mr McCain has been a sudden infusion of cash. He left St Paul with roughly $200 million in his war chest, which should allow him to almost match the spending of Mr Obama, whose fundraising has been prodigious, in the key last weeks of the race.

And in the short week since her astonishing rise from nowhere (apologies to Alaskans), Mrs Palin has managed to electrify not just the delegates who came to the convention but conservatives everywhere who had previously been lukewarm about Mr McCain. Most observers agree, however, that to win in November, the Republican must attract more than just his base, especially independents and women.

Mrs Palin’s presence on the ticket may or may not help. “Given the sharp political positions she inspires, Palin’s initial impact on vote preferences and on views of McCain looks like a wash,” said Gary Langer, polling director for ABC. “And, contrary to some prognostication, she does not draw disproportionate support from women.”

Stung by allegations that the Alaska Governor was chosen at the last moment and was not properly vetted, Republicans remain nervous over what else may yet emerge about her political and personal past. So far, no plans have been made public to allow Mrs Palin to confront reporters alone, although that must happen some time. Much may also hang on how she performs in the vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden in St Louis on 2 October.

The best and worst moments of the Republican convention

Worst

John Rich, singing risible "Raisin' McCain". Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" ballad was a mega-hit for Barack, but "Raisin'McCain" played for the Arizona senator by the country singer John Rich in St Paul was surely a dud on arrival

Worst

Pity Jo Ann Davidson, who raved at the podium about McCain's choice for VP, Sarah Pawlenty, conflating her name with Governor Tim Pawlenty, of Minnesota, who had been on McCain's shortlist

Worst

The gracious mansion behind McCain during his speech, was the Walter Reed Middle School in Los Angeles, picked by someone who thought it was the Walter Reed veterans hospital in Washington

Best

Meeting the parents. Have no doubt, 17-year-old Bristol Palin and her redneck beau Levi Johnston have the love to raise their child – she appeared wearing a ring while he had her name tattooed on the ring finger of his left hand

Best

Sarah Palin delivering her media attack: Few things get Republicans more fired up than a good old-fashioned round of finger pointing at the media and Mrs Palin had the pleasure of setting them off on Wednesday night

Best

Laura Bush speaking two nights in a row while her husband is cut short. Appearances before delegates on both Monday and Tuesday night by Laura Bush reminded the faithful that if they didn't love the incumbent enough even to invite him to St Paul, they will surely miss his wife

The Independent Focus Group

Throughout the US election campaign, The Independent will be asking voters on both sides of the politicaldivide, including Renée, Joe and Mary Beth, to give their views.

Today: what they thought of John McCain's speech

Renée Van Vechten, Democrat, California

McCain raised the stakes with a speech designed to bring tears to the eyes of every uncommitted independent voter. Still, after the tears have dried, it's evident that McCain has some distance to go. John McCain is a good man. But so is Obama.

Joseph McManus, Republican, Washington DC

McCain lectured the party for having lost the trust of the American people owing to some corrupt members. He then asked the party to join him in the fight to change Congress. This is tricky but he pulled it off, citing his own long record of bipartisanship and his record of fighting for America.

Mary Beth Ray, Republican, Washington DC

Although he is not a great orator, McCain's speech encapsulated his great strengths. He knows first-hand the horrors of war and I believe he will build on that experience for world peace. His speech galvanised the party faithful and garnered trust from independents.