Convention to focus in on ‘maverick’ status

THE Republican party has sidelined plans to specifically target young voters at its convention, preferring to focus on presidential candidate John McCain’s maverick history.

On Monday the party was given a violent reminder of its tarnished reputation among young people with a protest against the eight-year presidency of George W Bush.

Records from the Ramsey county sheriff’s office revealed 163 people were held in jail yesterday morning on a range of charges arising from Monday’s riots.

Out of those in custody the average age was 25 with addresses drawn from San Francisco to New York, although the majority lived in the St Paul/Minneapolis region. Less than 10% of those held were older than 30.

McCain’s senior strategist Adam Mendelson said the shortened schedule no longer allowed it to target specific demographics.

But Mendelson was confident the speeches selected for high-profile slots would appeal to young people.

“When you have somebody who is as respected as Senator Joe Lieberman, a lot of young voters will hear about John McCain as somebody who is a big part of fixing Washington.

“Our polling shows and I think what you will find is that young voters are tired of the old way of thinking. And the truth is he [McCain] has been the one challenging it,” he said.

Last night Lierberman, who defected from the Democratic Party after running as Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, gave a speech portraying McCain as the “original maverick”.

After schedule changes in response to Hurricane Gustav President Bush was given eight minutes air time, via satellite, during prime time last night.

Mr Mendelson said organisers were redrawing the entire running order in “real time” to accommodate priorities.

At a briefing yesterday evening he could not confirm if McCain’s vice presidential pick Sarah Palin will deliver the headline address to the convention tonight, as is tradition.

Organisers were considering moving her to a less prominent slot and handing the prime-time platform to former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani.

Palin’s appearance has been overshadowed by revelations regarding her daughter’s pregnancy, her husband’s drunk driving charge, her link to the sacking of her brother-in- law in Alaska and her previous political history.

While campaigning in Brecksville, Ohio, yesterday McCain was asked what he expected from tonight’s speech by his running mate.

He said he was proud of her response so far and after tonight so would his fellow Republicans.

“America is excited and they are going to be even more excited once they see her. I am very, very proud of the impression she has made on all of America and I am looking forward to serving with her,” he said.

The focus on Palin’s history may force the McCain campaign to rethink its attack strategy on Barack Obama.

When news broke about Palin’s daughter, Bristol, Obama refused to talk about it and said family members were off limits — for which he won praise from Republican congressmen.

This has put pressure on Fred Davis, the head of McCain’s advertising firm, to pull a planned advert focusing on Obama’s half-brother, George.

George Obama lives in a run-down area of Nairobi and is training to be a mechanic.

The advert talks about the lack of financial support George Obama gets from the Democratic presidential nominee.

Mr Davis said the advert was designed to under- mine Obama’s acceptance speech last week where he said his values were based on the principle of, “I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper”.