ST. PAUL, Minn. | Before John McCain even spoke here tonight to accept the Republican nomination for president, his campaign scored big with a video tribute that focused on his family's military service and his own background as a prisoner of war.

On prime time TV, millions across the country saw and learned things about Mr. McCain that few probably know.

His grandfather was a top-ranking U.S. Navy officer who was present at the signing of the treaty in the Bay of Japan that ended World War II, and then died days later.

His father was a Navy admiral who drove to the border between south and north Vietnam to be as close as possible to his son, who was imprisoned in downtown Hanoi, the city his father just ordered carpet-bombed.

They then showed a gripping, up close image of Mr. McCain on his sick bed while in captivity, and said that instead of taking an early release, "he chose to spend four more years in hell."

That experience "could have produced a biter man. Instead he came back to America with a smile, with joy and optimism," the narrator said.

The video also showed Mr. McCain's wife, Cindy, with the daughter they adopted out of Bangledesh.

"What a life. What a family," the narrator of the video said.

The crowd roared when Mr. McCain came out, but there were a few in the hall who were not impressed.

Two Code Pink protesters interrupted the speech briefly, walking down an aisle near the press area and yelling a slogan that was indistinguishable. They were roughly escorted out of the building, as the crowd drowned them out with chants of, "USA, USA."

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