Even as he claimed its presidential nomination, John McCain did his best to offload his unpopular Republican party Thursday, and carved sharp contrasts with Democrat Barack Obama.
McCain, 72, presented himself at his party convention as a humble, imperfect and battled-scarred servant of his country who would use the patriotism forged in a dank Vietnam war prison to navigate through a perilous new age.
Where Barack Obama used his convention speech last week to identify a historic turning point and launched a poetic call to a better tomorrow, McCain came across as deliberate, low key, and steely.
His delivery lacked Obama's rhetorical fireworks and was quiet, sometimes pedestrian and often drowned out by a crowd primed for the red meat rhetoric it never quite got.
McCain rebuked Washington's culture of political gridlock, and bemoaned the reformers in his own party who had gone to the capital to change it, and ended up being changed themselves.
"You know, I've been called a maverick, someone who marches to the beat of his own drum," McCain said, as he tried to leave his party in the rear-view mirror.
"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."
McCain also attempted to seize the mantle of "change" -- an important factor in an election year when the majority of Americans believe their country is going in the wrong direction -- from Obama.
With Sarah Palin, his running mate and the Republican party's new darling, McCain vowed to unleash a wave of change in Washington.
But the question that was left unanswered by his speech was, is an invocation to patriotism, and a heroic warrior past, enough to win an election when Americans are hurting economically and are furious at Republicans?
"These are tough times for many of you," said McCain in a direct response to Obama's charge in his convention speech that with many Americans on their last legs financially he "doesn't get it."
"You're worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and are struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home.
"All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way. And that's just what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future."
Critics will say however that McCain did little to advance any economic solutions not already tried by the Bush administration.
The Arizona senator told simply how love of country was burned on his soul only when he was incarcerated for five-and-a-half-years as a downed navy pilot in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.
"I've been an imperfect servant of my country for many years," McCain said.
"But I have been her servant first, last and always. And I've never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I didn't thank God for the privilege."
That patriotic theme may appeal to wavering voters who have been influenced by questions about Obama's patriotism, or who fear the scope of the change that he is demanding.
"One thing that came across loud and clear, it is that you cannot doubt that this is a man who loves his country and has devoted himself to be in the service of this country," said Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Fordham University.
Buddy Howell, a specialist in presidential rhetoric at Denison University, said McCain may not have reached the rhetorical heights of Obama, but had probably secured his Republican base vote, especially with his selection of Palin.
"I think that McCain surpassed my expectations in his speech," said Howell.
McCain's speech will likely be judged according to its various audiences.