The former prisoner of war described –– without mincing the words –– his youthful arrogance, pride, independence and self-centeredness prior to the prison camp (subtly, of course, implying that his opponent is still at that point in his life). McCain came away from that horrific, demoralizing ordeal –– with its torture, humiliation, solitary confinement and unbearable pain, with one goal –– to give back to his country because his fellow soldiers saved his life and because his country did not fail him in that time of extreme distress. He admitted to being broken by the enemy and feeling that he had betrayed himself and his country. He choked up as he humbly described the ways his fellow prisoners, rescued his spirit and self-respect. He credited “the good man in the cell next door, Bob Craner” for saving his life. Those friendships, he said, are the deepest ones of his life. He said to the hundreds of former soldiers in the arena and to the millions watching on television that “no man can always stand alone.” Bob Craner told him to “get back up and fight again for our country” and for the brave men who “served with him and fought for him everyday.”

McCain declared that he was never the same after that: “I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

In another, more direct, jab at his opponent McCain ended by describing why he was running for president. “I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”

He ended his remarks with a rousing challenge for Americans to join him in the fight. “We are Americans,” he said, “and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”

McCain laid down the battle line and signaled, with clarity and force, the choice before the American public. He called for the American people to put their trust in him –– an “imperfect servant of my country . . . who has never lived a day, in good times and bad, that I didn’t thank God for the privilege.”