President Bush got a belated, truncated, and relocated opportunity to speak to the Republican Convention after all on Tuesday night. But, despite the rapturous welcome for his brief, nine-minute appearance by satellite from the White House, the message was startlingly clear – this is no longer your party.

Instead on the first night of their convention, delayed by a day because of Hurricane Gustav, the beleaguered Republicans began an audacious makeover, presenting themselves anew under the banner of a man most of its leaders have openly clashed with for the last decade – John McCain.

It was not just President Bush, however, but the whole Republican party that was de-emphasised on Tuesday night. The McCain strategy for this crucial week is based on the belief that the Republican brand has been so damaged in the last few years that its best hope of winning in November is to detach Senator McCain from what polls say is his biggest vulnerability: his party as well as the current incumbent.

The shortened three-day convention in fact now looks much less like a traditional party event and more of an extended rally for Senator McCain, with an intriguing sidetrip on Wednesday to embrace his equally unconventional running-mate, Sarah Palin.

Instead of a speech that defended his eight years in office, President Bush dwelled on Senator McCain’s character. He saluted his time as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam and said his career had been marked by a willingness to serve. He even acknowledged that the two men did not always share the same view:.

“John is an independent man who thinks for himself, he’s not afraid to tell you when he disagrees. Believe me, I know”

And the biggest speech of the first night was given not by a Republican at all, but by the man who eight years ago addressed the Democratic Convention as that party’s candidate for vice-president.

Senator Joe Lieberman made the case for Senator McCain, not as a Republican, but as a bipartisan figure, the only one capable of uniting the country. He praised his achievements as one who had worked to forge agreements across party lines, and contrasted Senator McCain’s willingness to cooperate with the predictable partisanship of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate.

In what must have been a first for a Republican convention, he even drew applause for Bill Clinton when he contrasted Senator Obama with the former Democratic president, saying Mr Clinton, unlike Senator Obama, had stood up to powerful interests within his own party.

And he made a direct appeal to Democratic and independent voters:

“Tonight, I ask you whether you are an Independent, a Reagan Democrat or a Clinton Democrat, or just a Democrat: This year, when you vote for President, vote for the person you believe is best for the country, not for the party you happen to belong to.”

The most rousing speech of the night, however, came from Fred Thompson, the former senator and actor. Displaying a verve and energy that was lacking from his curiously half-hearted run for the Republican presidential nomination himself, Mr Thomson especially delighted the delegates with humour and a ringing defence of the embattled vice-presidential choice, Mrs Palin and tough words for Senator Obama.

Republicans are eager to fight back against the spate of attacks on Mrs Palin, following a series of revelations about her personal and public life since she was named by Senator McCain last Friday. On Tuesday Senator Thompson sounded the battle cry against the media and the Democrats:

“Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit,” he said

“ Well, give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union -- and won -- over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week”.

Senator Thomspon offered as proof of Senator McCain’s character a lengthy account of his experience as a naval aviator and prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam.

But he drew the loudest cheers for some scathing words for Senator Obama, a man, he said, who would make history by being “the most liberal, the most inexperienced nominee ever to run for president”

And directly alluding to voters’ doubts about Senator Obama’s still barely known past, he said of Senator McCain: “It's pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, "Who is this man?" and "Can we trust this man with the Presidency?"

This convention, then has got off to a successful, if truly curious start; a party event that is trying hard not to mention the party.

It underscored why Senator McCain swallowed doubts about the inexperience of his running mate, Mrs Palin. She fits perfectly the image presented in St Paul of a completely different sort of Republican party well: an independent-minded politician in the McCain mould who has challenged her party establishment in Alaska.

The sidelining of the damaged Republican brand is also emphasised by the theme of the gathering, emblazoned on signs all around the auditorium, and echoed again and again in every speech and every short film show – “Country First”.

The implicit point is that, when your party is as low in public esteem as the Republicans in 2008 your only real hope is to insist that for voters the decision should be: Country First, Party Second.

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