ST PAUL, Minnesota (AFP) - John McCain has a tough act to follow Thursday when he accepts the Republican White House nomination, a day after his running mate Sarah Palin swept the party convention off its feet.

The Arizona senator, 72, will complete a roller-coaster political journey with his primetime convention speech, in which he will spell out his vision for America should he beat Democrat Barack Obama in November's election.

"He's going to talk about his lifelong record of reform, he's going to talk about reaching across the aisle and building bipartisan consensus," said McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker on MSNBC.

It will be a sweet moment for McCain when he steps onto a catwalk stretching into the hockey arena hosting the convention, as he was written off by most pundits after his campaign slumped into near bankruptcy last year.

A veteran lawmaker, navy pilot, and former Vietnam prisoner of war, McCain has made a career out of bucking conventional political wisdom and the convention evening's program will lean heavily on his biography.

Delegates and millions of television viewers will also hear from McCain's wife Cindy and some of his closest political allies will attest to his character.

Palin's passionate, hard-nosed speech rocked the convention hall Wednesday and won praise from US commentators, who said the formerly obscure Alaska governor could no longer be dismissed as an amateur.

She also laid into Obama, describing him as a gifted speaker who could not be compared to McCain who inspired with a lifetime of deeds.

The Demcoratic nominee on Thursday said he was not surprised by Palin's attacks, and saw them as a diversionary tactic.

"I anticipated this last Thursday in my acceptance speech," Obama said in York, Pennsylvania, when asked if he had been surprised at Palin's vehement attacks.

"They don't have an agenda to run on. They haven't offered a single concrete idea so far in two nights about how they would make the lives of middle class Americans better."

Obama's vice presidential pick Joseph Biden, who faces a high-stakes showdown with Palin in their running mates debate in October, gave her marks for style, but not substance.

Biden said she failed to mention "the middle class or health care or about how people are going to fill up their gas tanks.

"I didn't hear a single word about how you're going to get our kids to college," Biden said.

Early Nielsen television ratings found that a staggering 37 million people watched Palin's primetime speech, which followed a flurry of political and personal storms which had engulfed her since she was named last week.

That figure was only a million or so short of the 38 million viewers who tuned in last week to Obama's spectacular convention finale in an open-air stadium in Denver.

After her address, Palin was joined on stage by her family including 17-year-old pregnant daughter Bristol and boyfriend Levi, and her infant son Trig who has Down syndrome, and McCain made a surprise appearance.

In a speech which mixed homespun small town values and searing political rhetoric, Palin, who will be formally anointed vice presidential nominee on Thursday, styled herself as a scourge of the Washington elite.

The 44-year-old mother of five and staunch opponent of abortion also noted she had served as a small town mayor in her native Alaska, saying in another swipe at Obama that the job was like being a community organizer "except that you have actual responsibilities."

Obama started in politics as a community organizer in Chicago after law school.

"What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?" Palin asked in another mocking slight towards Obama.

"The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world."

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