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Friday, August 29, 2008
Barack Obama accepts the Democratic presidential nomination before a crowd at INVESCO Field telling them that there is much work to be done and that A
Obama: 'We cannot turn back'
Aug. 28: Barack Obama accepts the Democratic presidential nomination before a crowd at INVESCO Field telling them that there is much work to be done and that Americans cannot turn back and must march into the future.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26447607#26447607
So Many Miles From Selma
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 29, 2008; A15
DENVER -- "I cried on Monday when Michelle spoke," Rep. John Lewis told me Wednesday at the Pepsi Center, "and I know that on Thursday night at the stadium I'll cry again."
Lewis, as every schoolchild should know, is one of the few lions of the civil rights movement still with us. As a Freedom Rider, he was pummeled by white Alabama mobs in 1961. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he spoke alongside Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963. His pate is scarred from a brutal beating administered by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the first Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. Lewis has earned the right to shed tears of amazement and joy.
A Democrat who represents Atlanta, Lewis fretted for months over whom to endorse in the primaries. Last October, he joined much of the black political establishment in backing Hillary Clinton -- out of a sense of loyalty and realpolitik. But as it became clear that Barack Obama might actually win the nomination, Lewis seemed increasingly agonized over the choice he had made. It wasn't just that he was catching hell from his African American constituents; nothing in John Lewis's biography suggests he even knows how to back down. Rather, he began to feel that he was on the wrong side of history.
"Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap," he said in mid-February. Two weeks later, he switched his endorsement to Obama.
We haven't heard much about race during the Democratic convention. That's clearly by design, and in terms of Obama's prospects it's probably a good thing. A recent New York Times-CBS News poll found that 16 percent of white voters feared an Obama administration would "favor blacks over whites." Obama has taken great pains to reassure voters that as president he would act without racial animus or resentment -- that he bears no grudges and intends to settle no scores. His success to date has depended largely on his ability to be seen as a candidate who happens to be black rather than as "a black candidate."
Still, this is an amazing, unbelievable moment.
Wandering around the convention hall, I kept running into people with a kind of "pinch me, I'm dreaming" look in their eyes. I saw Spike Lee, who seems to be everywhere; in a television interview earlier in the week, he grandiloquently divided American history into two epochs, "B.B." and "A.B." -- Before Barack and After Barack. I saw New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who was hoping he'd have the chance to witness Obama's acceptance speech before rushing home to prepare for the likely landfall of the evil-looking storm named Gustav. I met black delegates from Florida, California and various points in between, and they all said basically the same thing: Do you believe this is happening?
When Clinton came to the convention floor during Wednesday's roll call and asked that Obama be nominated "by acclamation," I got a lump in my throat. I knew that it wouldn't be official until Obama had given his acceptance speech, according to party rules, but there was something about the word "acclamation" that hit me. It implied an acceptance of leadership, a recognition of merit. African Americans have been an integral part of this nation since its birth and certainly don't need anyone's validation. Still, it feels as if this obvious historical fact has finally been acknowledged in a way that many of us felt we'd never witness in our lifetimes.
A black man is running as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Can you believe that?
Whether Obama wins or loses in November is important, to say the least; this feels like one of those potential turning-point moments for our nation, full of both peril and possibility. The campaign won't really even begin in earnest until next week, after the Republicans have held their convention. The debates are still to come; events surely will intrude; the polls will start to mean something; and what looks now like a squeaker of an election could turn into a landslide either way.
But let's not let this moment pass without fully appreciating what we've just seen. All Americans, regardless of race or party, should think of John Lewis bleeding on that Alabama bridge -- and then think of him at Invesco Field, watching a black man accept his party's nomination.
Tears are entirely appropriate.
Read more from Eugene Robinson at washingtonpost.com's new opinion blog, PostPartisan.
Obama accepte la nomination démocrate
Article publié le 29/08/2008 Dernière mise à jour le 29/08/2008 à 12:01 TU
Premier métis désigné candidat d’un grand parti aux Etats-Unis, Barack Obama a prononcé son discours d’acceptation devant ses partisans chauffés à blanc. Dans le discours le plus important de sa carrière, qui coïncidait avec le 45e anniversaire du discours fondateur de Martin Luther King, « I have a Dream », il s’en est pris à de nombreuses reprises à son rival républicain, John McCain.
Barack Obama salue ses 75 000 partisans en délire réunis dans un stade de Denver.
(Photo : Reuters)
Avec notre envoyée spéciale à Denver, Donaig Le Du
La convention démocrate au milieu des partisans
« A la nuit tombée, la voix puissante de Barack Obama retentit dans le stade. Elle résonne en écho, la foule l'interrompt sans cesse pour applaudir. »
Depuis des heures, massés à l’intérieur du stade géant de Denver, brandissant des pancartes et des drapeaux américains, ses partisans l’attendaient, surexcités. Puis il est arrivé.
Visiblement ému mais souriant, Barack Obama a fait son apparition. La foule l’a acclamé pendant plus de 3 minutes. Puis il a pris la parole, et a enfin lâché les paroles que tous attendaient : « Avec une profonde gratitude et une grande humilité, j’accepte votre nomination pour la présidence des Etats-Unis. »
Barack Obama
Candidat démocrate à l'élection présidentielle des Etats-Unis
« Avec une profonde gratitude et une grande humilité, j'accepte votre nomination pour la présidence des Etats-Unis. »
La clameur qui accompagne l’annonce est entendue à au moins deux kilomètres du stade. « Merci, merci, merci » a répété le candidat démocrate à la foule qui l’a longuement acclamé, lançant des « Oui, nous pouvons », son slogan de campagne.
Barack Obama
Candidat démocrate à l'élection présidentielle des Etats-Unis
« Je crois qu'aussi difficile que cela soit, le changement dont nous avons besoin arrive. Nous ne pouvons pas faire demi-tour. »
je n'hésiterai jamais à défendre ce pays, mais j'enverrai nos soldats risquer leur vie avec l'engagement sacré qu'ils auront tout l'équipement nécessaire pour combattre. »(Photo : Reuters)" border="0" width="200" height="282">Lors de son discours, Barack Obama a détaillé son programme. Concernant les soldats américains, il a déclaré : « je n'hésiterai jamais à défendre ce pays, mais j'enverrai nos soldats risquer leur vie avec l'engagement sacré qu'ils auront tout l'équipement nécessaire pour combattre. »
(Photo : Reuters)
Barack Obama, qui était coutumier, dans ses discours au cours des primaires, à de grandes envolées lyriques, a été beaucoup plus pragmatique ce jeudi. Il a donné le ton de la campagne : des critiques certes, mais pas d’attaques personnelles. « John McCain est sûrement quelqu’un de très bien en tant que personne, dit-il en substance, mais il ne propose rien d’autre que de continuer la politique de George Bush pendant quatre ans de plus. »
McCain « ne comprend pas »
Obama a accusé McCain de soutenir les choix de George Bush responsables, selon lui, du marasme de l’économie américaine et du déclin de la place des Etats-Unis dans le monde.
« Je ne pense pas que le sénateur McCain se moque de ce qui se passe dans la vie des Américains. Je pense simplement qu’il ne le sait pas, a affirmé le candidat. Autrement, pourquoi définirait-il la classe moyenne comme ceux qui gagneraient moins de 5 millions de dollars pas an ? »
« Ce n’est pas parce que John McCain s’en moque. C’est parce que John McCain ne comprend pas. »
Un discours « trompeur » selon le candidat républicain
Le discours de Barack Obama a été suivi partout aux Etats-Unis et notamment sur les écrans géants de Times Quare à New York.
(Photo : Reuters)
Pour John McCain, le sénateur de l’Illinois n’était « toujours pas prêt à devenir président. »
« Ce soir, les Américains ont assisté à un discours trompeur qui était en contradiction fondamentale avec le maigre bilan de Barack Obama », a déclaré son porte-parole.
La confrontation entre les deux hommes est bel et bien lancée. John Mc Cain, dans les jours qui viennent, va tenter de reprendre très vite la main et attirer à son tour l'attention des médias avant la Convention des républicains, qui se tiendra la semaine prochaine à St Paul-Minneapolis (Minnesota).
John McCain aurait choisi son co-listier
« En toute logique, John McCain devrait faire connaître ce vendredi ou au plus tard samedi le nom de son co-listier alors que la convention républicaine s'ouvrira lundi prochain. »
A Denver, dans le stade plein à craquer, certains partisans ont du suivre le discours de Barack Obama sur écran géant.
(Photo : Donaig Le Du / RFI)
http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/104/article_71720.asp
Obama masters his moment
Roger Simon1 hour, 13 minutes ago
DENVER — Barack Obama has a dream, a dream embodied in a speech, a speech he gave at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night to introduce himself to America.
Yes, introduce. Hard as it is to believe, most Americans are just getting to know him. And this is what they got to know Thursday night: He is a man who can master a moment.
He did a little inspiration, he did a little substance, he did a little attack, he did a little defense, he did a little everything except let his audience down.
Even when it sounded like he was going to lapse into old and tired political rhetoric — he talked about the struggles of ordinary, hardworking Americans — he gave it a new twist and managed to blunt the attacks of his opponent to boot.
“I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine, these are my heroes,” Obama said as the enormous crowd at Invesco Field roared. “Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.”
Obama’s speech soared many times, but it always came back to earth. And it usually came back to earth on John McCain’s head.
Obama mentioned McCain by name no fewer than 21 times, praising his service and patriotism, but attacking him not just on specifics, but on one, general point.
“McCain doesn’t get it,” Obama said. McCain is “grasping at the ideas of the past.”
Need a translation? Here’s one: McCain, who turns 72 on Friday, is old and out of it. His ideas are tired and he is tired, and this is no time in the history of America or the world for a tired president.
You can accuse Barack Obama of a lot of things — and no doubt McCain will do so next week at the Republican National Convention — but you can’t accuse Obama of being a cream puff. He is ready to get it on, high road, low road, or middle road, against the Republicans.
Their greatest sin? Well, much of what they have told us about fighting terror, Obama said, has been a fiction.
“For while Sen. McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face,” Obama said. “When John McCain said we could just ‘muddle through’ in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.”
And then Obama really lowered the boom. “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell,” Obama said, “but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”
Obama sought to undo Thursday night what George Bush had done in 2004: convince voters that only a Republican administration could protect America from terrorism.
Wrong, said Obama. “Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country; don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe,” he thundered. “The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans — Democrats and Republicans — have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.”
Nor is Obama cowed by the current success of the surge in Iraq, upon which McCain has staked so much. “John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war,” Obama said. “That’s not the judgment we need. That won’t keep America safe. We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.”
The past, the past, the past. Old, old, old. Tired, tired, tired. That was Obama’s continuing line of attack as he stood on a vast stage in a vast football stadium looking young, vigorous and enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm is a concern for the Republicans this year. The most extraordinary sight in Denver Thursday afternoon was the line of people waiting to get into Invesco Field. It stretched not just for blocks, but for miles. People filled every inch of the sidewalks on main streets and side streets. They inched under viaducts and scampered across highway entrance ramps. They stood in line for hours to get into the stadium to wait in the hot sun for even more hours. All to see a man give a speech that they could have stayed home and watched on TV.
That’s enthusiasm. And, for John McCain, that’s going to be a challenge. McCain has another one: giving speeches is not his strongest point. And even though there will be debates and commercials and town hall meetings in the weeks ahead, presidential campaigns are still largely about giving speeches. They used to be done on stumps and now they are done on television, but they still have to be done.
And Barack Obama knows how to do them. All his speeches, however, can be summed up in one word. Those Americans who have not heard it before, will be hearing it a lot. It is his theme, his campaign, his promise.
“I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming,” he said. “Because I’ve seen it. Because I’ve lived it.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080829/pl_politico/12962
On 28 August, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his magnificent "I have a dream speech" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
'I have a dream'
On 28 August, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his magnificent "I have a dream speech" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Below is the full text of his speech.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
| | America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds' |
But 100 years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
And so we've come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a cheque. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we've come to cash this cheque - a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
Sweltering summer... of discontent
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
| | The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges |
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: in the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realise that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back.
Trials and tribulations
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights: "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied and we will not be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
| | I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood |
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
The dream
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning: "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.
But not only that.
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Permission granted by Intellectual Properties Management, Atlanta, Georgia, as manager of the King Estate. Further to Dr King's legacy by making community service a way of life, please visit the King Center's website [under related links] to find a service opportunity in your neighbourhood.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3170387.stm
Published: 2003/08/21 16:32:44 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Obama tells huge Dem crowd he'll fix Washington
By DAVID ESPO and ROBERT FURLOW, Associated Press Writers 40 minutes ago
Surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd, Barack Obama promised a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush" Thursday night as he embarked on the final lap of his audacious bid to become the nation's first black president.
"America, now is not the time for small plans," the 47-year-old Democratic Illinois senator told an estimated 84,000 people packed into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium at the base of the Rocky Mountains.
He vowed to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. By contrast, he said, "John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time," a scathing indictment of his Republican rival — on health care, education, the economy and more.
Polls indicate a close race between Obama and McCain, the Arizona senator who stands between him and a place in history. On a night 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream Speech," Obama made no overt mention of his own race.
"I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree" of a presidential candidate was as close as he came to the long-smoldering issue that may well determine the outcome of the election.
Fireworks lit the night sky as Obama, his speech concluded, accepted the cheers of supporters. His wife, Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha joined him as the country music anthem "Only in America" filled the stadium. Vice presidential running mate Joseph Biden and his wife, Jill, joined them onstage.
Depicted by McCain as too young and inexperienced to sit in the Oval Office, Obama responded with an oblique reference to his rival's temper.
"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have," he said.
Campaigning as an advocate of a new kind of politics, he suggested at least some common ground was possible on abortion, gun control, immigration and gay marriage.
Obama delivered his 44-minute nomination acceptance speech in an unrivaled convention setting, before a crowd of unrivaled size — the filled stadium, the camera flashes in the night, the made-for-television backdrop that suggested the White House, and the thousands of convention delegates seated around the podium in an enormous semicircle.
Obama and his fellow senator, Biden of Delaware, leave their convention city on Friday for Pennsylvania, first stop on an eight-week sprint to Election Day.
McCain countered the stadium extravaganza with a bold move of his own, hoping to steal some of the political spotlight by spreading word that he had settled on a vice presidential running mate. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman were in the running.
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia spoke from the convention stage of the anniversary of King's memorable speech.
"Tonight we are gathered here in this magnificent stadium in Denver because we still have a dream," said the Georgia lawmaker, who marched with King, supported Obama's primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then switched under pressure from younger black leaders in his home state and elsewhere.
Obama's aides were interested in a different historical parallel from King — Obama was the first to deliver an outdoor convention acceptance speech since John F. Kennedy did so at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960.
In his speech, Obama pledged to jettison Bush's economic policy — and replace it with his own designed to help hard-pressed families.
"I will cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class," he said.
The speech didn't mention it, but Obama has called for raising taxes on upper-income Americans to help pay for expanded health care and other domestic programs.
He did not say precisely what he meant by breaking the country's dependence on Mideast oil, only that Washington has been talking about doing it for 30 years "and John McCain has been there for 26 of them."
Criticized by the GOP for his thin foreign policy portfolio, Obama said he welcomed a national security debate with McCain.
"We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country," Obama said. "I will never hesitate to defend this nation."
He said McCain had no standing on foreign policy, not after backing the Iraq war from the start and rejecting timetables for withdrawal now accepted by Bush. "John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war," he said.
Obama's pledge to end the war in Iraq responsibly was straight from his daily campaign speeches.
"I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons," he added.
As he does so often while campaigning, Obama also paid tribute to McCain's heroism — the 72-year-old Arizona senator was a prisoner of war in Vietnam — then assailed him.
"Sen. McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than 90 percent of the time?
Former Vice President Al Gore picked up on the same theme. "If you like the Bush-Cheney approach, John McCain's your man. If you want change, then vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden," he declared.
The much-discussed stage built for the program was evocative of the West Wing at the White House, with 24 American flags serving as a backdrop. A blue carpeted runway jutted out toward the infield, and convention delegates ringed the podium. Thousands more sat in stands around the rim of the field.
The wrap-up to the party convention blended old-fashioned speechmaking, Hollywood-quality stagecraft and innovative, Internet age politics.
The list of entertainers ran to Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder and will.i.am, whose Web video built around Obama's "Yes, we can" rallying cry quickly went viral during last winter's primaries.
In a novel bid to extend the convention's reach, Obama's campaign decided to turn tens of thousands of partisans in the stands into instant political organizers.
They were encouraged to use their cell phones to send text messages to friends as well as to call thousands of unregistered voters from lists developed by the campaign.
In all, Obama's high command said it had identified 55 million unregistered voters across the country, about 8.1 million of them black, about 8 million Hispanic and 7.5 million between the ages of 18 and 24.
Those are key target groups for Obama as he bids to break into the all-white line of U.S. presidents and at the same time restore Democrats to the White House for the first time in eight years.
The Democratic man of the hour paid a brief visit to members of his home-state Illinois delegation before the curtain went up on his show. "I came by (because) I had this speech tonight. I wanted to practice it out on you guys. See if it worked on a friendly audience," he joked.
There was no joking about the stakes in the speech, a once-in-a-campaign opportunity to speak to millions of voters who have yet to make up their minds between McCain and him. The polls show a close race nationally, with more than enough battleground states tight enough to tip the election either way.
Obama's hopes of victory rely on holding onto the large Democratic base states such as California, New York, Michigan and his own Illinois, while eating into territory that voted for George W. Bush. Ohio tops that list, and Democrats have also targeted Montana, North Dakota, Virginia and New Mexico, among others, as they try to expand their Electoral College map.
McCain was in Ohio as Obama spoke, and after a series of sharply negative convention week television commercials, his campaign aired a one-night advertisement that complimented Obama and noted the speech occurred on the anniversary of King's famous address.
"Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, 'Congratulations,'" McCain says in the ad.
"How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight Senator, job well done."
(This version CORRECTS Pawlenty canceled one day of appearances but not two)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cvn_convention_rdp
Barack Obama's convention address
By The Associated Press2 hours, 6 minutes ago
Prepared remarks of Sen. Barack Obama for his address to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night in Denver, as released by the campaign:
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin, and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation: With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest_ a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours — Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next first lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia, I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women, students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors, found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments, a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work, and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes, and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land: enough! This moment, this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that, we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives, on health care and education and the economy, Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this president. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisers, the man who wrote his economic plan, was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than 100 million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy — give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is, you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well, it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president, when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000, like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great, a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves, protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity, not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America, the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president.
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes — cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stopgap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy; wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American — if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime, by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less because we cannot meet 21st century challenges with a 20th century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility — that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice, but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans — Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As commander in chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly and finish the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America, they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This, too, is part of America's promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit that American promise that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours, a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead, people of every creed and color, from every walk of life, is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of Scripture, hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_obama_text_1
Obama Takes Aim at Bush and McCain With a Forceful Call to Change America
DENVER — Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Thursday, declaring that the “American promise has been threatened” by eight years under President Bush and that John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world.
The speech by Senator Obama, in front of an audience of nearly 80,000 people on a warm night in a football stadium refashioned into a vast political stage for television viewers, left little doubt how he intended to press his campaign against Mr. McCain this fall.
In cutting language, and to cheers that echoed across the stadium, he linked Mr. McCain to what he described as the “failed presidency of George W. Bush” and — reflecting what has been a central theme of his campaign since he entered the race — “the broken politics in Washington.”
“America, we are better than these last eight years,” he said. “We are a better country than this.”
But Mr. Obama went beyond attacking Mr. McCain by linking him to Mr. Bush and his policies. In the course of a 42-minute speech that ended with a booming display of fireworks and a shower of confetti, he offered searing and far-reaching attacks on his presumptive Republican opponent, repeatedly portraying him as the face of the old way of politics and failed Republican policies.
He said Mr. McCain was out of touch with the problems of everyday Americans. “It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care,” he said. “It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it. “
And he went so far as to attack the presumed strength of Mr. McCain’s campaign, national security. “You know, John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives,” he said.
The speech loomed as arguably Mr. Obama’s most important of the campaign to date. It was an opportunity to present himself to Americans just now beginning to tune in on this campaign, to make the case against Mr. McCain and to offer what many Democrats say he has failed to offer to date: an idea of what he stands for, beyond a promise of change.
To that end, he emphasized what he described as concrete steps he would take to address the anxieties of working-class Americans, promising tax cuts for the middle class and pledging to wean the country from dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years to address high fuel prices.
With the speech, Mr. Obama closed out his party’s convention here and prepared for a quick shift of public attention to the Republicans as Mr. McCain moved to name his running mate and his party got ready for its convention in St. Paul on Monday.
He delivered it in a most unconventional setting, becoming the third nominee of a major party in the nation’s history to leave the site of his convention to give his acceptance speech at a stadium. In this case, it was Invesco Field, set against the Rockies and about a mile from the arena where he had been nominated the night before. His aides chose the stadium to signal a break from typical politics and to permit thousands of his supporters from across the country to hear him speak.
And it came on a night that offered — by the coincidence of scheduling — a reminder of the historic nature of the Obama candidacy: 45 years to the day after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the Mall in Washington. Mr. Obama is the first African-American to be nominated for the White House by a major party, a fact that, for all its significance, has been barely mentioned over the course of this four-day gathering.
Even in invoking the anniversary of the King speech, Mr. Obama only alluded to race. But he quoted a famous phrase from Dr. King’s address to reinforce a central theme of his own speech. “America, we cannot turn back,” Mr. Obama said. “Not with so much work to be done.”
Mr. McCain marked the occasion of the speech by releasing a television advertisement in which, looking into the camera, he paid tribute to Mr. Obama and his accomplishment. “How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day,” Mr. McCain said. “Tomorrow, we’ll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, job well done.
The advertisement stood in stark contrast to a summer of slashing attacks on Mr. Obama by Mr. McCain that apparently contributed to the tightening of this race. And the softer tone did not last; Mr. Obama was still on the stage, watching the fireworks, when Mr. McCain’s campaign issued a statement attacking him.
“Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama,” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain..
In his speech, Mr. Obama scored Mr. McCain for raising questions about his patriotism, and trying, he said, to turn a big election into a fight on small squabbles.
“I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain,” Mr. Obama said, an American flag lapel affixed to his left lapel. “The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag.”
“So I’ve got news for you, John McCain: We all put our country first,” he said, prompting the crowd to break into a chant of “U.S.A., U.S.A.”
Mr. Obama looked completely at ease and unintimidated by his task or the huge crowd that surrounded him. And he chastised Mr. McCain for trying to portray him as a celebrity, an attack aides say has been particularly damaging, offering a list of people who he said had inspired him, from his grandmother to an unemployed factory worker he met on the campaign trail.
“I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine,” he said. “These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on behalf of them that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.”
Mr. Obama delivered his speech on a day of considerable political churn. Even as Mr. McCain was paying tribute to Mr. Obama on television, his aides disclosed that he made a choice for vice president and would announce it on Friday, timing intended to draw attention away from Mr. Obama on a day in which he and his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., would be starting a joint campaign swing.
Mr. Obama’s audience began lining up to go through security and enter the stadium eight hours before he was to speak. As seats filled, they watched a series of musical performances, including by Stevie Wonder, who sang, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.”
But the table for Mr. Obama was also set by speeches from some of the best-known Democratic leaders. They were led by Al Gore, the former vice president who confronted a question that has, fairly or not, hovered over Mr. Obama as he struggles in his contest with Mr. McCain.
“Why is this election so close?” Mr. Gore asked. “Well I know something about close elections, so let me offer you my opinion. I believe this election is close today mainly because the forces of the status quo are desperately afraid of the change Barack Obama represents.”
Mr. Obama used much of his speech to link Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush — a line of attack that his aides view as their strongest going into the fall — and signaled that he saw next week’s Republican convention, when Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush are to appear together, albeit briefly, as a way to press that line of attack.
“Next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third,” he said. “And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: ‘Eight is enough.’“
Speaking in generally broad terms, Mr. Obama offered a contrast between Republican and Democratic views of the role of government.
“We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500,” he said, “but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job — an economy that honors the dignity of work.”
This was by any measure a risky gambit by a campaign that has shown a taste for taking chances and breaking with convention, as his aides acknowledged. Bad weather could have soaked the moment. Mr. Obama’s first question to aides when they proposed this was, “Will it rain?” It did not; the day was dry, if hot.
When John F. Kennedy held his outdoor rally at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in June 1960, half the seats were empty, as a dispatch in The New York Times noted in dismissively describing the event as a “fresh air vaudeville.” The stadium here was packed by 5:15 mountain time, three hours before Mr. Obama was to take the stage, after a week in which Democrats and Obama supporters had been hustling for tickets.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Democrats Nominate Obama
Candidate Gets Boost From the Clintons as He Becomes The First African American to Lead a Major-Party Ticket
By Dan Balz and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 28, 2008; A01
DENVER, Aug. 27 -- Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois completed an improbable and historic journey here Wednesday when he was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for president, becoming the first African American to lead a major political party into a general-election campaign.
Obama, who just eight years ago attended his first Democratic National Convention and who four years later shot to national prominence with an electrifying keynote address at the gathering in Boston, was given a final symbolic boost Wednesday by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who moved from the convention floor to suspend the roll call of the states and formalize her former rival's nomination by acclamation.
The gesture of conciliation brought to a conclusion the closest and hardest-fought nomination battle Democrats have waged in the modern era of presidential politics, pitting two historic candidacies in a contest that divided the party and left lingering bitter feelings among Clinton loyalists.
But after days of nervous speculation about how the long and often contentious competition would end here in Denver, the nomination-by-acclamation set off a joyous scene on the convention floor, as delegates danced to the strains of "Love Train" and then broke out in chants of "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!"
Hours later, the convention confirmed Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) as the party's vice presidential nominee, and as he finished his acceptance speech, Obama made a surprise visit to the Pepsi Center to praise his running mate; his wife, Michelle; his erstwhile rival Clinton; and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who had delivered a powerful speech on behalf of Obama earlier in the night.
"I think the convention's gone pretty well so far, don't you think?" Obama said. He cited his wife's speech on Monday, and then, referring to Hillary Clinton's speech on Tuesday, said, "If I'm not mistaken, Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night."
In his acceptance speech, Biden, the fiery chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cast himself as a champion of working-class families -- a key target group Obama has struggled to win over -- and laid out a sustained critique of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who will accept the GOP nomination next week.
"I am here for everyone I grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington," he said. "I am here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly-line workers -- the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures."
Time and again, Biden charged, Obama's judgment on foreign policy issues has been superior to McCain's. On domestic issues, he said, McCain would continue the policies of President Bush rather than embrace changes he said the country desperately needs.
"Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was proven right," Biden argued. "Folks, remember when the world used to trust us? When they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they'll look to us again, they'll trust us again, and we'll be able to lead again."
In its response to the night's proceedings, McCain's campaign sought to turn Biden's words against Obama.
"Joe Biden is right: We need more than a good soldier. We need a leader with the experience and judgment to serve as commander in chief from Day One," said spokesman Ben Porritt. "That leader is John McCain."
Biden was preceded on the podium by Bill Clinton, whose conduct during the nominating contest prompted considerable criticism from Democrats backing Obama and who has complained in private that he was unfairly attacked.
But the former president, like his wife on Tuesday, delivered a rousing speech that made a strong argument that the election of Obama is critical to the country's future.
Clinton drew a thunderous and sustained welcome from delegates, who cheered and waved American flags and chanted "Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill" as he sought to quiet them. "I am here first to support Barack Obama," he said, setting off another round of applause.
Clinton acknowledged that "in the end, my candidate didn't win" the nomination. But then, citing his wife's speech on Tuesday, he said: "Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us." That set off a fresh round of applause that grew louder when he added: "Actually, that makes 18 million of us, because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November."
Challenging Republican criticism of the new nominee, he said: "Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Barack Obama is ready to honor the oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States."
Recalling that Republicans had accused him of not being ready when he ran in 1992, Clinton noted that the criticism had not worked then and "won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."
Obama, who began Wednesday in Montana, touched down in Denver just as nominating speeches were getting underway and immediately headed to his hotel downtown to continue working on the acceptance speech he will deliver on Thursday night. He was with his wife; their daughters, Sasha and Malia; and other members of his extended family when he was declared the party's nominee.
The final stages of the nomination battle played out through a series of events on Tuesday and Wednesday, beginning with Hillary Clinton's speech on Tuesday, in which she called Obama "my candidate" and told her supporters that if they believe in the causes she champions, they should now help elect Obama.
On Wednesday, Clinton met with her delegates and, over shouts of "No, no," told them they were free to vote any way they wished. "I'm not telling you what to do," she said to some applause. But she added: "I signed my ballot this morning for Senator Obama."
The roll call of the states, which was the subject of lengthy negotiations between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, began shortly before 4 p.m. Denver time. Clinton wanted her name put in nomination in recognition of her historic candidacy, and many of her delegates were demanding the opportunity to record their support for her.
But early in the roll call it became clear that many of them had already shifted to Obama and that the quadrennial spectacle had been choreographed to produce a party united behind him.
The first conspicuous example of the shift to Obama came when Arkansas, the home state of Bill Clinton and a state she carried overwhelmingly during the primaries, cast most of its 47 votes for him.
Other Clinton states followed suit. New Hampshire, which brought her campaign back to life in January with a surprise victory, cast all its votes for Obama. Then came New Jersey, another state where Clinton trumped Obama in the primaries, which voted unanimously for him.
Two-thirds of the way through the roll call, an elaborately planned series of handoffs began to unfold. New Mexico yielded the floor to Illinois, which had passed on the first go-round. Illinois, Obama's home state, then yielded the floor to New York, Clinton's state.
Suddenly, the cameras zeroed in on Clinton within a throng of people on the convention floor moving toward the stanchion marking the New York delegation. A cheer went up as her image appeared on the big screens in the arena.
Standing next to Gov. David A. Paterson, Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Rep. Charles B. Rangel, Clinton did the honors for the man who had denied her dream of becoming the first woman ever nominated to lead a major party. "With the goal of unity," she said, "let's declare together in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."
Clinton then moved that the convention suspend the rules and the continuation of the roll-call vote and asked that Obama be nominated by acclamation. Her motion triggered another thunderous round of applause and cheers from delegates. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) quickly gaveled the nomination to a close, triggering a demonstration that brought the party ever closer to unity.
Obama was nominated by Michael Wilson, a registered Republican and Iraq war veteran, with seconding speeches by Sen. Ken Salazar (Colo.) and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) and Artur Davis (Ala.).
Wilson praised Obama for his opposition to the Iraq war and his willingness to meet with enemies of the United States. "You know, there's an old saying: 'If you always do what you did, you'll always get what you got,' " he said. "America needs new leadership in the White House, and that leader is Barack Obama."
Clinton was nominated by civil rights leader Dolores Huerta of California, who called the senator a champion for working people. "She has stood with hardworking people and knows how important it is to keep fighting and keep going," she said. "For many in America, working people are invisible. For Hillary Clinton, no American is invisible."
Long before the marquee speakers came to the hall, a procession of Democratic elected officials blasted McCain and Bush in an effort to undermine the GOP's advantage on foreign policy issues.
Former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), an early supporter of Obama, directly addressed the question of whether Obama is ready to serve as commander in chief by holding up the current administration as an example.
"Together Vice President Cheney, [former defense secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and John McCain brought more than a century of experience to our foreign policy challenges," he said. "And what did that get us? One international debacle after another."
Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, noted that McCain had voted with the administration 90 percent of the time and that a McCain administration would look like a Bush administration. He argued that Obama would keep the country safer than McCain would.
"George Bush, with John McCain at his side, promised to spread freedom but delivered the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said. "They misread the threat and misled the country."
Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.), who was one of the finalists in the vice presidential search, described McCain as "not the change we need" and, despite having voted for the Iraq war resolution, attacked Bush and McCain for their prosecution of that conflict.
"George Bush and John McCain were wrong about going to war in Iraq, are wrong about how to get us out of Iraq, wrong to ignore the danger in Afghanistan," said Bayh, who became an administration critic. "The time for change has come, and Barack Obama is the change we need."
Staff writers Perry Bacon Jr., Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
Biden says nation needs more than a good soldier
By WALTER R. MEARS, AP Special Correspondent1 hour, 4 minutes ago
Joe Biden accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination Wednesday night and declared that the challenges America faces require "more than a good soldier" in the White House, hailing Barack Obama as a wise leader who can deliver the change the nation needs.
In a single sentence, Obama's new running mate complimented John McCain's years of military service and slapped his claim on the White House.
As Biden concluded his speech accepting the nomination, Obama stepped on stage and embraced his man to a convention roar.
"I want everybody to now understand why I am so proud to have Joe Biden ... and the whole Biden family," Obama told the boisterous crowd. "I think he's presented himself pretty well so far, what do you think?" More cheers.
In his speech, Biden also sniped at Vice President Dick Cheney, saying that after he takes over the job, for Americans trying to do the right thing and honor the Constitution, "no longer will the eight most dreaded words in the English language be 'The vice president's office is on the phone.'"
Biden said the bedrock American promise of a better tomorrow is in jeopardy "but John McCain doesn't get it."
"I know it, you know it ... Barack Obama gets it," he said.
"This is the time as Americans, together, we get back up," he said. " ... These are extraordinary times. This is an extraordinary election. The American people are ready. Barack Obama is ready. This is his time. This is our time. This is America's time."
Hours after the Democratic National Convention nominated Obama by acclamation, Biden was unanimously chosen to be his running mate.
He called Republican McCain a Senate friend of three decades, but the wrong man for the White House. "I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country," he said.
At one point, misspeaking, he started a sentence by referring to George — as in President Bush — and then corrected himself to say John — as in McCain. A Freudian slip, he quipped. It is a connection Democrats are bent on making at every opportunity.
Biden went hard against McCain and the Republicans on foreign policy. "I've been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms: This administration's policy has been an abject failure."
Biden said McCain wants to keep it going on the same course.
"America cannot afford four more years of this," Biden said. "... Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was proven right."
The 65-year-old Delaware senator told the convention he'd learned a lot about Obama by campaigning against him for the party's presidential nomination. Biden was an early dropout in that campaign, quitting after he managed only 1 percent of the vote in Iowa's opening caucuses.
Biden said that in debating Obama, watching him react under pressure, he learned about the strength of the Democratic presidential candidate's mind and his ability to touch and inspire people.
"And I realized he has tapped into the oldest American belief of all: We don't have to accept a situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it," Biden said in excerpts of his prepared remarks.
Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that "our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history."
"The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out," Biden said.
On a timelined withdrawal from the war in Iraq, which McCain rejects, he was wrong and Obama was right, Biden said.
"After six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home," he said.
That issue must have special impact for Biden. He was presented to the convention by his son, Beau Biden, the Delaware attorney general, who said "other duties" would keep him from his father's side during the campaign. He did not mention that the other duty was to report for service in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard.
So the younger Biden asked Democrats to be there for his father in the campaign. "Be there because Barack Obama and Joe Biden will deliver America the change we so desperately need," Beau Biden said.
In response, the McCain campaign said, "Joe Biden is right: We need more than a good soldier, we need a leader with the experience and judgment to serve as commander in chief from Day One. That leader is John McCain."
Former President Clinton hailed Biden's nomination for vice president as he pledged his campaign backing to Obama in a convention speech. He said Obama "hit it out of the park" with the vice presidential selection he disclosed early Saturday.
"With Joe Biden's experience and wisdom supporting Barack Obama's proven understanding, insight and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need," Clinton said.
McCain has not said who is vice presidential pick is, but an announcement Friday is possible.
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