Hours before the historic moment at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sen. John McCain didn’t miss an opportunity to deliver a preemptive strike against Sen. Barack Obama, who will challenge the Republican in the November general election.

In a speech before several hundred supporters in New Orleans, McCain dubbed his policies the “right change” for America, a sharp reference to his opponent’s “Change We Can Believe In” campaign slogan. McCain further emphasized what he argues is a history of championing reform in the Senate, and assured voters that “no matter who wins this election, the direction of the country is going to change dramatically.”

“I have a long record of bipartisan problem-solving,” said McCain, noting that Americans are only “just getting to know Sen. Obama.”

But whereas McCain struck out at what he sees as Sen. Obama’s inexperience, the speech was particularly significant for the way in which McCain sought to distance himself from a vastly unpopular President Bush, citing his opposition to the president’s initial Iraq, energy and climate change policies.

“I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration’s mismanagement of the war in Iraq,” said McCain. “I called for the change in strategy that is now, at last, succeeding where the previous strategy had failed miserably.”

McCain faces a difficult argument with Obama over the war, however. Sam Stein, a political reporter with the Huffington Post, reports tonight that in April 2008, McCain himself stated that “No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.”