McCain backers expect rousing speech

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Probable Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain's acceptance speech will belie his undeserved reputation as a stiff speaker, his supporters say.

As McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, prepares to deliver the biggest speech of his career Thursday at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., his campaigners predict it will compare favorably with the widely praised acceptance speech delivered last week by Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Washington Web site Politico reported Wednesday.

"They're two different guys," Mark Salter, McCain's principle speechwriter told Politico in Arlington, Va. "Obama's a studied and extremely talented orator. Everybody's aware of that … He's blessed with a near-baritone voice, but his physicality, his movements -- it's very fluid."

McCain, however, is also blessed by an ability to be simple and direct in his speeches that allows him to get across points effectively, even if he doesn't possess the same kind of charisma as Obama, Salter said.

"You keep it simple: 'This is what I want to do; this is what I think we need to do,'" he said. "Then you talk and get passionate about a lack of willingness in this town to take these things seriously."