US Election: Mccain's Onetime Rivals Take the Stage in St Paul to Voice Their Support

Three prominent Republicans that John McCain defeated in the battle for the presidential nomination joined forces on Wednesday night to praise him and subject Barack Obama to his most sustained battering yet at the party's convention in St Paul.

After two days in which the convention was almost a politics-free zone because of sensitivity over the hundreds of thousands displaced by Hurricane Gustav, McCain's former opponents - Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani - turned out on his behalf.

Romney, the multi-millionaire businessman who tried to spend his way to the nomination, called on voters to support McCain but also kept open the option of another run in 2012 with a populist speech positioning himself well to the right and repeatedly denouncing liberals.

In spite of loud applause when he began, the enthusiasm for him was less than that for either Huckabee or Giuliani.

But Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a Mormon, won cheers when he suggested Obama was too weak to stand up to what McCain had described as the evil of radical, violent Islam. McCain, he said, would defeat it.

"We will never allow America to retreat in the face of evil extremism," he said, implying that Obama would.

In keeping with this theme, he cast doubt on the patriotism of Obama's wife, Michelle, over a remark in January in which she said she had been proud of America for the first time when Iowa voted for him for the Democratic nomination. "Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American," Romney said.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who was a surprise dark horse who stayed in the race with McCain to the end, joked that McCain had been his second choice for the nomination.

A Christian pastor, who believes in creationism, Huckabee is popular with delegates and won repeated rounds of applause.

Huckabee paid tribute to Obama's achievement in becoming the first African American to win the Democratic presidential nomination, but that did not mean he was fit to become commander in chief.

"Maybe the most dangerous threat of an Obama presidency is that he would continue to give madmen the benefit of the doubt. If he's wrong just once, we will pay a heavy price," Huckabee said.

As part of the hardening of support behind Palin, Huckabee inserted a late change to his speech saying that the media elite had united the party and country behind the vice-presidential candidate with reports that were "tackier than costume changes at a Madonna concert".

Giuliani, who held a large lead last year in the battle for the Republican nomination but was forced out of the race early on, received the loudest welcome of the three, reflecting the lingering respect for the way he handled the aftermath of 9/11 as New York City mayor.

Giuliani won ovation after ovation as he ran through Obama's career, ridiculing his lack of experience, saying he had never had

Like Huckabee, he too resorted to scare tactics, saying that the election was about to whom people wanted to entrust the safety of their families. McCain had been tested, he said, but Obama "had never had to lead people in a crisis. He is the least experienced candidate for the president in the last 100 years … Barack Obama has never led anything. Nada."