"This is, indeed, a change election," McCain said. "But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change."

McCain senior adviser Charles Black said the campaign planned the speech with the expectation that Obama would clinch the Democratic nomination Tuesday.

"This is the first night of the general election," Black said. "So we're going to draw a clear contrast between McCain and Obama."

That includes McCain outlining his plans to win the war in Iraq, to keep taxes low, to negotiate more free-trade agreements and to promote private health insurance plans by letting consumers deduct the costs from their taxes.

"The decision facing Americans in this election couldn't be more important to the future security and prosperity of American families," said the presumptive Republican nominee at a convention center on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain. McCain spoke against a backdrop that heralded him as "a leader we can believe in."

McCain challenged Obama's attempts to link him to the unpopular President Bush. He said Obama repeatedly says that the Republicans offer a "third Bush term" because the Illinois senator "knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false."

At one point, McCain turned the Bush issue on Obama, noting that he voted for an energy bill backed by the administration. McCain said he opposed that bill because it gave "more breaks to the oil industry."

The Arizona senator also peppered his speeches with a twist on Obama's campaign slogan, "Change we can believe in." After singling out Obama's support for "big government," an expensive farm bill, the energy bill and spending programs, McCain echoed: "That's not change we can believe in."

Citing what he says is Obama's lack of experience, McCain said: "The American people didn't get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Sen. Obama."

McCain criticized Obama's plans to withdraw from Iraq and to meet with leaders of nations that are critical of U.S. foreign policy. He argued that the Democrat's domestic agenda will lead to higher taxes and government control of health care.

McCain, 71, who called Obama a "formidable" opponent, made a joking reference to the age difference with the 46-year-old: "I have a few years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought into so many failed ideas."

In St. Paul, where the GOP convention will be held, Obama said McCain is promoting failed policies of the Bush agenda, including tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy and a foreign policy that would keep U.S. troops mired in Iraq.

"There are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new," Obama said. "But change is not one of them."

McCain also drew contrasts with the Republican president, such as global warming. McCain supports a new government program to restrict industrial emissions of greenhouse gases.

Then there's the selection of the New Orleans area for McCain's speech. When he campaigned in New Orleans in April, he criticized the Bush administration for its handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said New Orleans isn't a "traditional launching place" for GOP campaigns, but "John McCain isn't your typical Republican, and he is running to reform government for all Americans."

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