Former President Bill Clinton during his address Wednesday.

AP / Charles Dharapak

Now it’s John McCain’s turn.

After an emotional, precedent-shattering Democratic National Convention that nominated Barack Obama and relentlessly whacked the Arizona senator and President Bush, the GOP gets to preen and to whack back at its convention in St. Paul.

McCain, 72, moved Friday to shake up the political equation by tapping Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, for vice president.

A bold move, obviously, but risky — a political risk for McCain, not to mention that many will see it as a risk for the country. Palin has been governor for less than two years. Before that she was a small-town mayor.

Overall, the convention challenge for McCain is clear:

Beyond projecting his inspiring personal story as a Vietnam POW, he must erase the caricature Democrats painted of him as an out-of-touch, uncaring Bush clone. McCain must come across as in charge and in tune — that is, rock solid able to lead, and worthy of leading, attuned to the needs of real people, with effective solutions to offer.

The most devastating line in Obama’s acceptance speech may have been, “It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.”

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who was on hand, tells me, “I liked that it was tough. He showed his willingness to scrap with McCain and the Republicans.” Democrats, Whitehouse says, expect “another 24/7 slime fest” from the GOP.

But Rhode Island House Republican Leader Bob Watson, chairman of the state’s delegation to St. Paul, says he was not at all rattled. “It was great pageantry, it almost looked like the closing ceremonies of the Olympics,” Watson says of the Democrats’ final-night session, which drew 84,000 people to a Denver football stadium.

But Watson doesn’t see the speech as anything McCain can’t handle. He says Obama sounded the same familiar notes. “They’ve rung all season and they haven’t seemed to shift public opinion.”

McCain’s naming Palin was a blatant, if desperate, bid to undermine Obama’s lock on the mantel of change.

And McCain certainly does need to puncture the aura surrounding the 47-year-old golden-tongued, rock star Illinois senator, who is the first black person to be a major party presidential nominee. McCain must persuade you he is a better bet to take the country where it needs to go. (Okay, I can hear cynics say, but is Palin the right person to be the back-up driver?)

That Obama’s address came on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech added to the sense of history on the march.

On CNN, commentator David Gergen, who has worked for Republican and Democratic presidents alike, rhapsodized of Obama’s performance, “In many ways, it was less a speech than a symphony.”

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews said, “This is going to be one first-rate general-election campaign. This is going to be fought at the highest level of combat. And we’re going to see the best there is in this country.

I hope so, though I’m not as convinced as Matthews. So far there has been a lot of bickering and trivializing.

Whitehouse says the convention allowed Obama, long viewed as an “icon,” to be seen as an arresting human being. “I don’t care how cold-hearted a Republican you are, you would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by his family,” Whitehouse says. He locked in his memory bank a scene of Obama’s younger daughter standing on stage, amid the post-speech fireworks that filled the sky, reaching, as a child would, for the star-shaped confetti.

Republicans like to dismiss Obama as a shallow, not-ready-to-be-commander-in-chief celebrity. But Thursday night’s speech may have impressed many television viewers as an electrifying, credible call to action, with Obama portraying himself as grounded in the struggle of hard-working Americans, prepared to deal with the nation’s enemies, and, certainly, go toe to toe with McCain on this or any other front.

Declaring that patriotism has no party, an in-your-face Obama declared, “I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.”

Of course, Republican Watson sees things differently. It’s one thing for Obama to say he’s ready, Watson says, but, “That doesn’t mean it’s true. He still has to make that case.”

Watson asserts, “John McCain has the depth of experience on foreign policy … He’s prepared to be president, versus a gentleman who, by comparison, lacks the depth of experience and background.”

Watson also asserts Obama’s programs would cost big bucks; taxpayers would do better with McCain.

Shortly after I spoke with Watson, who had been sitting on the plane at T.F. Green to head toward Minnesota, the news broke that McCain had picked Palin for VP.

Watson phoned from the airport in Chicago and pronounced Palin a good choice. She could appeal to women, Watson said, and the pick of a Washington outsider highlighted McCain’s self-styled image as a maverick.

As for her having less foreign-policy experience than Obama, Watson said, “We’re talking about the vice-presidential candidate.” Still, he acknowledged, Palin will have to demonstrate she is prepared.

Meanwhile, Whitehouse makes a good point about conventions showcasing families.

I wasn’t surprised that Michelle Obama’s speech on Monday was impressive. She is a savvy lawyer who has been a vocal, high-profile campaigner, with a heart warming story: She and her brother, former Brown University basketball coach Craig Robinson, now at Oregon State, were raised by determined, loving blue-collar Chicago parents and made it to Princeton. (The prospective first lady also went to Harvard Law.)

Whitehouse says that during her speech he happened to be sitting with Democratic national chairman Howard Dean. He says he turned to the Vermonter and asked, “Any way you could arrange a spouses’ debate?”

Cindy McCain, quieter and wealthier, has a more remote public image. It will be interesting to see how she comes across when she addresses the Republican convention on Wednesday.

She certainly has things she can talk about. “The philanthropist and businesswoman has learned to fly planes and even drive race cars,” says an ABC News profile. She has a degree in special education and has devoted time to such causes as Operation Smile, in which volunteer doctors repair such childhood facial deformities as cleft lips. She adopted an infant from Mother Teresa’s orphanage. And she beat an addiction to pain medication.

Watson says, “As Americans learn more and more about her, I think they will grow to admire her, as I have.”

I will be interested to see how deft McCain is in emerging from Bush’s shadow. The president, his wife, Laura, and Vice President Dick Cheney are scheduled to address the convention tomorrow night.

Their appearance hardly would help McCain demonstrate independence.

The Bush-Cheney-McCain ties are a story line for viewers to follow, just as a main story line at the Democratic convention was Obama’s need to flatter Hillary and Bill Clinton, receive their support and validation, and build from there.

Watson is skeptical that the Democrats really achieved unity, at least beyond the convention hall.

He says, “The Clinton subplot has been fun to watch play out … I don’t think Bill and Hillary Clinton can snap their fingers and make 18 million people march. I can appreciate the frustration that grew out of the very contentious Democratic primary process … I don’t think that goes away overnight.”

Yet Whitehouse, who had hoped Hillary Clinton would be the nominee, says the unity is real, partly because of her speech Tuesday night.

And he had a chance to commend her while Thursday’s closing program played out. After spending time with the Rhode Island delegation, Whitehouse went to a box and sat two seats away from Clinton during Obama’s speech.

“I told her how amazingly proud I was of her performance two nights previously,” and he noted that he was still hoarse from cheering. “She said she knew there was a lot of pressure and scrutiny on her and she was happy that I thought she had met the mark.”

He said Clinton did not mope during Obama’s speech and stood to applaud “on probably a dozen different occasions.”

Bill was not around.

There were a lot of watery eyes at the Democratic convention — people moved by Hillary Clinton, whom so many women wanted, and by Obama — what a landmark, for a black man to be nominated — and by the personal story of 65-year-old vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden, who lost a wife and daughter just after he was first elected to the Senate.

But, in terms of poignant memories, it will be hard to top Monday’s appearance by Ted Kennedy.

It drove home the stark reality that the days of this 76-year-old Massachusetts senator, suffering from brain cancer, may be limited, and yet it also underscored the legacy he will leave.

Indeed, because of the circumstances, this speech, while briefer than others for which he is celebrated, and with a stiffer delivery, may do more than any other to burnish in people’s minds his image as an orator, a champion of the underdog and a crusader for health care.

I will remember watching TV and seeing the mass of Kennedy signs, and his niece, Maria Shriver, first lady of California, wiping away a tear, and another niece, Caroline Kennedy, biting her lip.

I will remember Senator Kennedy, first elected in 1962, vowing — indeed, pledging — to be back on the Senate floor in January. (Listening to that, Whitehouse says he thought, “Way to go, Ted. I’m sure you’ll be there.”)

I will remember Kennedy’s renewing his determination, finally, to put across a health-care program, a goal he has pursued in the highest-profile fashion since his “sail against the wind” speech to a Democratic gathering in Memphis in 1978. I was there, and one of the commentators was talking about it Monday.

The senator’s closing echoed his defiant concession speech at the 1980 convention and the 1961 JFK inaugural, but it also was forward-looking, anticipating a Barack Obama victory:

“And this November” — it came out, of course, Novembah — “the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans … The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.”

Years from now, when people see on TV, or Web sites, or in museums, clips from this speech, they may miss the essence of the moment if the presentation does not also include excerpts from the broadcasters’ commentary.

“There were a lot of tears here at the Pepsi Center at the Democratic National Convention,” said CNN’s Wolf Bltizer.

He added, “You saw a lot of Democrats crying, men and women. There was no doubt about that. This is one of those moments these people who were inside, and millions of people watching around the world ... will never forget.

“Ted Kennedy — we didn’t even know if he would make it here to Denver. He made it to Denver. Then we didn’t know if he’d be strong enough to deliver a speech. But what we heard, and a lot of us have heard Ted Kennedy over the years, this was a powerful vintage Ted Kennedy making his point.”

CNN’s John King, who hails from Boston, couldn’t resist saying it was nice to hear someone with “the right accent.” Then he filled in some of the background to the senator’s appearance, that he got out of his car at a loading dock, was put in a golf cart, brought backstage, waved to people, but said nothing. There was, King said, uncertainty as to whether he actually could go on. (Besides everything else, it was learned later, Kennedy had to deal with a bout of kidney stones; he had come to the convention hall from a Denver hospital.)

Kennedy did stride out and he did speak, and why not? As King said, “The guy wanted to be here …Whatever you think of his politics, he is a lion, and I think he proved it tonight.”

On Good Morning America on Tuesday, Rep. Patrick Kennedy couldn’t stop beaming about his father.

The congressman said someone told him the speech had been his dad’s “Michael Phelps moment.”

Sounds about right to me.

I look to see what kind of drama unfolds in St. Paul.

M. Charles Bakst is the Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com