ST. PAUL, Minn. – Cindy McCain praised her husband at the Republican National Convention in an speech that hailed him as a straight talker and a father who by example has passed on his love of country and values to his children.

“He has shown the value of self-sacrifice by daily example and, above all John showers us with the unconditional love and support every family dreams of. I know what his children say of him,” Cindy McCain said in a prime-time address Thursday night. “And his courageous service to America in war and peace leaves no doubt what our forefathers would make of him.”

McCain was the warm-up act for her husband, John, who was ready to come to the floor and accept his party's presidential nomination. Cindy McCain is chairwoman of Hensley & Co., her family's business.

Before speaking, she introduced their seven children to the cheering delegates as the “seven reasons John and I are so happy.” McCain's wife then told of “stirring stories” she has heard of people helping people in bad times and introduced their daughter Bridget, who the couple adopted from an orphanage in Bangladesh.

She said more could be done by private citizens “if only the federal government would get itself under control and out of our way.”

McCain avoided criticizing Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama. Instead, she praised her husband as a “man who's served in Washington without ever becoming a Washington insider” and a leader “who always speaks the truth no matter what the cost.”

The presidential candidate's wife also hailed McCain's running mate Sarah Palin and received loud cheers when she said she believes “it's a good idea to have a woman's hand on the wheel as well.”

“John has picked a reform-minded, hockey-mommin', basketball shootin', moose huntin', salmon-fishin', pistol-packing, mother of five for vice president,” she said. “And as a fellow hockey mom myself and a western conservative mother, I couldn't be prouder that John has shaken things up as he usually does.”