ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Upbraiding his opponent and at times challenging his own party, Sen. John McCain last night accepted his long-sought nomination as the GOP's candidate for president.

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"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," said Mr. McCain, who was prisoner of war in Vietnam for five years. "I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for."

Echoing the "Country First" mantra of his campaign, he said, "I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's."

In an election in which his opponents characterize him as the heir to an unpopular administration of his own party, he vowed to transform the capital.

"We were elected to change Washington and we let Washington change us," he said. "We lost the trust of the American people ... when we valued power over principle. We're going to change that. We're going to recover the peoples' trust."

In the convention and the campaign that preceded his appearance on the Xcel Center stage, Mr. McCain had been compelled to devote much of his political attention to the demands of uniting his party. With the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, and her widely acclaimed speech Wednesday night, that hurdle seemed to have been cleared.

Last night he turned to projecting the image at the core of his first campaign for president, in 2000, when his maverick image first appeared on the national stage. In a year in which a long war and a faltering economy have battered his party's image, Mr. McCain's speech sought to demonstrate that he was not a typical Republican.

"I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Sen. Obama does not."

The passage reflected the Arizona Republican's effort to preempt the message at the center of his rival's campaign. From the time of the convention speech that brought him to national attention four yeas ago, Mr. Obama has embraced the goal of overcoming the partisan divides of national politics. Mr. McCain argued that his own record offered a more substantial example of working across party lines.

Appropriating the word at the core of the Obama message, he said, "Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming."

For months, Mr. McCain's campaign had often seemed more about his opponent than himself. Throughout the summer, his strategists had focused on putting the Democrat on the defensive. While Mr. McCain criticized Mr. Obama last night, his greater focus was on his own career, as a lawmaker and as a former Navy officer and POW.

While Mr. McCain had some tough words for his opponent, his first mention of the Illinois senator was a gracious one..

"A word to Sen Obama and his supporters we'll go at it the next two months ... but you have my respect and admiration. Much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans and that's an association that means more to me than any other."

But Mr. McCain criticized the Democrat's plans for health care, education and taxation.

Turning to his own energy plan, he said, "We'll produce more energy at home we will drill new wells offshore and we will drill them now."

His walked to the microphone at the Xcel Center with two tough acts to follow. A week ago, Mr. Obama had wowed Democrats with a ringing outdoor address in Denver's Invesco Field. The previous night, Ms. Palin had energized the delegates here with her acclaimed debut on the national stage.

He walked out through a gale of applause and chants of , "USA, USA," after the crowd watched a video tribute to his military and political career that included a graphic account of his years as a prisoner.

The biographical theme of the evening also ran though his wife Cindy McCain's portrait of him as "... a loyal and loving and true husband and a magnificent father!"

"It's going to take someone of unusual strength and character - someone exactly like my husband," she said, "to lead us through the reefs and currents that lie ahead. I know John. You can trust his hand at the wheel."

Among the speakers preceding Mrs. McCain was former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. Mr. Ridge, so often the bridesmaid and never the bride in his party's vice presidential selection process, praised the man he came to Congress with a quarter century ago as a lawmaker willing to blaze his own path.

"Some were ready to count John out," Mr. Ridge said of a time when the McCain campaign had squandered tens of millions of dollars on a national primary campaign, premised on cruising to the nomination as a prohibitive front-runner. That didn't happen.

Mr. Ridge recounted a visit with his friend at the time of this near implosion of his White House ambitions.

"He paused for a moment," Mr. Ridge said. "From his shoulders came a quick shrug. He said, 'You and I know Tom, I've been through worse.' "

Mr. McCain and his new partner were to travel from the convention city to the battleground state of Wisconsin. The GOP strategists' assessment of the key battlefields that await was clear in the positioning of the state delegations around the thrust stage built specially for last night's address.

Pennsylvania's delegates were directly in front of their nominee. Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri surrounded the speaker. They all had a great view of the nominee. They'll see a lot more of him in the next eight weeks.