Comment: Gerard Baker | McCain speech in full | Sketch: Brady Bunch on steroids | Ferraro criticises 'sexist' media | Punters fail to take to Palin

John McCain last night sought to drag the Republican party back on course for a third successive presidential victory by re-casting it in his own self-image of a maverick reformer ready to reach out across political divisions and end "partisan rancour".

His speech accepting the presidential nomination capped a week in which the stellar power of his running mate Sarah Palin and the soap opera surrounding her family have overshadowed not only him but also — for the first time in months — his Democratic opponent Barack Obama.

And last night Mr McCain's promise to put country ahead of party interest seemed thin fare for the sometimes subdued delegates who had feasted on the raw red meat served up by the ferocious Mrs Palin at the convention 24 hours before.

The Republican nominee's independence has often put him at odds with the party's conservatives and his vice-presidential pick has been interpreted as an effort to shore up a Republican base demoralised by eight years of President Bush.

But he also knows such support will not be enough to deliver victory in November’s general election and last night he toned down some of the aggression of Wednesday night as he tried to seize back the mantle of change from of Mr Obama.

"You know, I’ve been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum,” he said. “Sometimes it’s meant as a compliment and sometimes it’s not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”

In remarks addressed directly to voters watching on TV outside the convention, Mr McCain added: "Instead of rejecting good ideas because we didn't think of them first, let's use the best ideas from both sides. Instead of fighting over who gets the credit, let's try sharing it. This amazing country can do anything we put our minds to. I will ask Democrats and Independents to serve with me."

Mr McCain, whom Democrats have tried to present as a clone of Mr Bush, paid only passing tribute to the president at the beginning of his speech. But he was also heckled by peace protesters, a reminder of America's bitter divisions over the Iraq war that has done so much to prise Congress from the Republicans' grip and make Mr Bush's administration one the least popular in history.

"My friends, don't be distracted by the ground noise and static," he said, as some of the demonstrators were thrown out the hall still shouting. "America wants us to stop yelling at each other, okay?" he added.

Mr McCain delivered his address from a speaking podium jutting out into the middle of the audience that had been built overnight to capture the intimacy of his trademark town-hall meetings and was possibly also designed to send an implied rebuke the grandiose Classical Greek columns used by Mr Obama as the backdrop in his acceptance speech in Denver last week.

Despite "big differences" with Mr Obama, he said "much more unites us than divides us" and that the Democrat bidding to be America's first black president had "my respect and admiration".

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