ST. PAUL, Minn. - Republican presidential nominee John McCain, buoyed by a unifying GOP convention and the spark of running mate Sarah Palin, plunged into a competitive, eight-week struggle with Democrat Barack Obama over which party can best bring change to Washington.

Before a roaring crowd of delegates McCain vowed Thursday night to vanquish the “constant partisan rancor” he said was plaguing the nation as he embarked on an eight-week effort to win the White House.

“I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again,” McCain said. Joining him after the speech was Palin, the Alaska governor whose national political debut has helped solidify GOP conservatives behind the party ticket.

McCain and Palin left Minnesota immediately after the Arizona senator’s acceptance speech, bound for Democratic-tilting Wisconsin as Obama planned campaign and fundraising events in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

In a convention speech lasting nearly an hour, McCain promised before a nationwide television audience to govern as a political maverick with a bipartisan bent. And he reminded voters of the 5 1/2 years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison.

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” he said. “I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - Sarah Palin voluntarily told John McCain’s campaign about her pregnant teenage daughter and her husband’s 2-decade-old DUI arrest during questioning as part of the Republican’s vice presidential search.

The Alaska governor also greatly detailed the dismissal of the state’s public safety commissioner that has touched off a legislative investigation.

Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., the lawyer who conducted the background review, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Palin underwent a “full and complete” background examination before McCain chose her as his running mate. Asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review already has been made public, Culvahouse said: “I think so. Yah, I think so. Correct.”

McCain’s campaign has been trying to tamp down questions about whether the Arizona senator adequately researched his surprise vice presidential selection or whether he chose the first-term governor without fully looking into her background.

Since McCain publicly disclosed his running mate on Friday, the notion of a shoddy, rushed review has been stoked repeatedly.

First, a campaign-issued timeline said McCain initially met Palin in February, then held one phone conversation with her last week before inviting her to Arizona, where he met with her a second time and offered her the job Thursday.

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Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama leads Republican rival John McCain by 49 percent to 43 percent nationwide among registered voters, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today.

The results were little changed from a similar survey in mid-July, the Post said. The latest survey was conducted Aug. 19-22, before Obama announced he had chosen Senator Joe Biden of Delaware to be his vice presidential running mate. Three- quarters of registered voters, in answer to a hypothetical question, said choosing Biden wouldn’t influence their vote either way, the Post reported.

The poll also showed that 20 percent of those who supported Senator Hillary Clinton of New York for the Democratic presidential nomination now support Arizona Senator McCain, while 70 percent of her supporters back Obama, the highest level since she suspended her campaign in June, the Post said.

The latest nationwide poll of 1,108 adults included interviews with 916 registered voters. The poll, and the results among registered voters, have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net

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DENVER - John McCain’s campaign suggested Sunday that rival Barack Obama snubbed Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate because of her criticism during the battle for the Democratic nomination. Obama’s campaign dismissed the claim as the candidate praised Joe Biden, the man he did choose.

Campaigning in the battleground state of Wisconsin, Obama said he was "absolutely convinced" fellow senator Biden was right for the job.

"He’s got the passion to lift up middle-class Americans, he hasn’t forgotten his working-class roots, he has the expertise that will make him a great counselor on international crises that might come up," Obama told reporters before boarding his plane in Eau Claire, Wis.

Earlier, speaking at a barbecue at a lakeside gun and rod park in Eau Claire, Obama said both he and Biden had humble roots and predicted the veteran lawmaker from Delaware would be "one of the greatest vice presidents in the history of the United States."

Meanwhile, a new McCain ad, the second since Obama made his vice presidential choice, challenged Obama’s motives in passing over Clinton, his former top rival, and choosing Biden, who dropped out of the presidential contest after a poor showing in Iowa, the first contest. Chief Obama strategist David Axelrod insisted Biden was "a better fit."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Biden "has challenged the status quo. And he’s even criticized Senator Obama, so it’s a tribute to Senator Obama that he’s not just choosing a yes man but a person who will speak what he believes."

Obama was also planned campaign stops in Iowa, Missouri and Montana before the nomination becomes his Thursday in Denver. He spoke in Eau Claire, a city of 65,000 about 85 miles east of St. Paul, Minn., site of the Republican convention the following week.

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WASHINGTON - Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.

Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.

Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.

The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.

Obama’s campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

Hundreds of miles to the west, carpenters, electricians, sound stage gurus and others transformed the Pepsi Center in Denver into a made-for-television convention venue.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — Russia pressed the United States on Wednesday to choose between "a real partnership" with Moscow or an "illusory" relationship with U.S. ally Georgia.

Washington said it’s sticking with Georgia.

"As to choosing, the United States has made very clear that it is standing by the democratically elected government of Georgia," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.

She spelled out the Bush administration’s stance after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Georgia’s government "a special project for the United States."

"And we are aware that the U.S. is uptight about this project," Lavrov said in remarks broadcast on Russian television. "But a choice will have to be made someday between considerations of prestige related to an illusory project and a real partnership in matters which indeed require collective efforts."

Rice, amid reports that Russian troops remained on the move Wednesday, pushed Russia to abide by a cease-fire signed Tuesday by the Russian and Georgian presidents.

Russian military action in Georgia "must stop and must stop now," Rice said.

Rice said Moscow already faced "quite significant" diplomatic consequences over its conflict with Georgia before Tuesday’s cease-fire agreement, which calls for Russian and Georgian troops to return to pre-conflict positions.

Bush said reports he had received were contrary to Russian assurances that it had halted military operations. Bush said he was told the Russian military had blocked Georgia’s major east-west highway, and had soldiers at the main port at Poti. There were reports that some ships had been attacked, he said.

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BIRMINGHAM, Mich. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain says Russia’s invasion of Georgia requires a complete reexamination of U.S. relations with the Moscow government.

McCain has told reporters in Michigan that he was pleased the United States canceled a planned joint military operation with Russia. But he added that the U.S. will now need to review the full range of its relations with Russia.

McCain says there should be heightened security arrangements for Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland. But he rules out military action against Russia or a return to the Cold War.

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WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former investment firm executive, says "absolutely there’s a lot of truth" to President Bush’s comment that Wall Street "got drunk and now it’s got a hangover," in understanding the current economic climate.

Paulson also is taking a wait-and-see approach on a possible second round of economic aid, an idea that congressional Democrats are pushing to a vote. The $168 billion program of tax rebate checks that Bush signed into law in February was the right size to help the struggling economy this year, Paulson said. He wants to see how it ends up helping the economy in the July through September period and worries about driving the budget deficit higher with a second plan.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to have the House vote on additional aid when lawmakers return in September from their summer vacation. She believes more is needed to counter higher gasoline prices and other costs.

The economy is struggling to emerge from crises in the housing, financial and credit markets and cope with rising prices at the pump and grocery store. Paulson, in a television interview broadcast Sunday, asserted that the country’s economic fundamentals are sound.

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WASHINGTON - After upsetting some conservatives by signaling an openness to higher payroll taxes for Social Security, Republican John McCain gave the simplest of answers Tuesday when asked if he would raise taxes as president.

“No,” McCain said sternly when the question was put to him by a young girl at a meeting in Sparks, Nev.

Despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, McCain had caught some Republicans by surprise by suggesting the opposite.

Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. “I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table,” he said.

He went a step farther Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” in response to a question about payroll tax increases.

“There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table,” McCain said. “I don’t want tax increases. But that doesn’t mean that anything is off the table.”

That comment drew a strong response from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain’s comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are “shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances.”

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WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private, the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military.

With his signature from the Oval Office, Bush said yes to the military’s request to execute Ronald A. Gray, the White House confirmed. Gray had had been convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area over eight months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg.

“While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

In the military courts, “Private Gray was convicted of committing brutal crimes, including two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. The victims included a civilian and two members of the Army. … The president’s thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous crimes and their families and all others affected.”

Unlike in the civilian courts, a member of the U.S. armed forces cannot be executed until the president approves the death sentence. Gray has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since April 1988.

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