The Big Story: McCain aims to reclaim reformist image

ST. PAUL, Minn.?-- John McCain will try to reclaim his reformist image at a Republican National Convention tightly scripted to put some distance between the conservative presidential candidate and his party’s unpopular standard-bearer, President Bush.

McCain lost to Bush in the 2000 GOP primaries but emerged from that campaign as one of the nation’s most popular figures, with a reputation for bucking his party and the status quo. This year’s campaign diluted that image as he backed Bush’s position on the Iraq war and courted conservative leaders he once scorned.

He wants his mojo back.

McCain’s plans may be complicated by Mother Nature. Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, a reminder of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Bush administration’s poor response. The storm was clearly on McCain’s mind Saturday.

“You know it just wouldn’t be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster, so we’re monitoring it from day to day and I’m saying a few prayers, too,” McCain said in an interview taped for “Fox News Sunday.”

The White House is keeping a close eye on Gustav, which neared Category 5 Saturday, to see whether Bush might need to change his plans to travel from his ranch in Texas on Monday to address the convention.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said such decisions probably would not be made until the last minute.

Gustav’s projected path suggests it will make landfall late Monday or early Tuesday on Louisiana’s central coast.

The possibility of serious storm damage could keep away some prominent governors — including Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and Mississippi’s Haley Barbour. Depending on the path the storm takes, it could also affect the plans of governors Bob Riley of Alabama, Rick Perry of Texas and Charlie Crist of Florida.

Meanwhile, in a pick that shocked the political community, McCain put little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on his ticket and declared she will “help me shake up Washington and make it start working again for the people.”

“She’s exactly who I need. She’s exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of ‘Me first and country second,’” said McCain, who watched Obama steal his change-agent persona in 2007.

As the first woman to serve on a GOP presidential ticket, she could help him win over a constituency that has given him trouble and woo disaffected Democratic supporters of vanquished Obama primary opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton. Palin also is a rock-solid conservative and abortion opponent whose selection instantaneously revved up a disgruntled GOP base that must turn out in the fall to give McCain any hope of winning.

McCain, who served nearly six years in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp, also will try to persuade the public that he puts “Country First” above personal ambition. Essentially, GOP strategists say, McCain will suggest that Obama does the opposite.

They say he also hopes to benefit from voter wariness about Obama’s liberal record, inexperience and race; the first-term Illinois senator would be the nation’s first black president.

Two months before Election Day, polls nationally and in key states show a tight race, and the convention is McCain’s best, perhaps last, shot to set the campaign conversation by redefining the GOP as the party of reform.

From the campaign’s start, Democrats have embraced the mantel of change and have been relentless in pointing out where McCain is the same as Bush. Polls show their pitch has been successful, with more than half of the country saying McCain would continue the president’s policies.

Voters either don’t know McCain’s record of breaking with the party on a range of issues like global warming and stem cell research, or they don’t believe it given McCain’s alliance with Bush on Iraq and other issues. McCain has reversed himself to back the president’s tax cuts after twice voting against them.