John Mccain Arrives in Minnesota

John McCain finally arrived in St Paul for the Republican convention today on the eve of the most important speech he has ever delivered and under pressure to at least match Barack Obama's inspirational delivery to the Democrats in Denver last week.

He has to try to lift the 20,000 Republicans attending a convention that so far has lacked the energy of the Democratic meeting and win over millions watching at home.

Campaigning had been virtually suspended while the politicians watched events on America's Gulf Coast. But with relatively little damage from Hurricane Gustav, both the Republicans and Obama resumed normal political exchanges today.

McCain, who spent the early part of the week in the Gulf region, is hoping for a poll bounce from his speech that will put him in the lead nationally for the first time.

The latest poll, for Gallup, has Obama on 50% for the first time against McCain on 42%, suggesting that Obama may have received some bounce from the convention last week. Reaching the 50% mark is symbolically important and comes after a month in which the two have been deadlocked in the polls.

The proportion of undecided voters has shrunk to about 8%, according to the poll. This is a crucial time, with swing voters only now beginning to make up their minds, based on the conventions and the three presidential debates still to come.

Republican campaign organisers said that today will mark a change in tone at the convention, becoming more overtly political after two days that were relatively soft focus.

The change in tone, with attacks on Obama being stepped up, will be reflected in the line up at the convention tonight, three of the men that McCain beat for the Republican nomination: Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

Speaking earlier today, Giuliani resumed the Republican attack on Obama for lacking experience. "I would say Barack Obama has never governed a city, never governed a state, never governed an agency, never run a military unit, never run anything," Giuliani told CBS.

Obama, speaking at a rally in New Philadelphia, Ohio, today criticized the lack of any substance in the opening days of the Republican convention. He said that at the convention on Tuesday he had not "heard a single thing about the economy", the issue that Americans care most about.

The day had focused on building up McCain's narrative, just as Obama's campaign had with him on the opening days of the Democratic convention.

But Obama offered as evidence that McCain will fight on personality rather than issues a comment by McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, who told the Washington Post: "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

McCain, who earlier this week considered making his presidential nomination speech in a video link from the Gulf coast, was greeted at the airport today by his wife Cindy and his family as well as his vice-presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, and her family.

McCain is to use the prime-time coverage of his speech to draw a contrast between himself and Obama, such as his plan to reduce dependency on Middle East oil. He is proposing to do this by increasing drilling for oil off the US coast and building 45 new nuclear plants.

Previewing McCain's speech, Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota who was on the short list to be McCain's running mate, said that high petrol costs was the issue on the minds of most Americans.