(DENVER, Colo.) The crowd was roaring and the stage and atmosphere was more of a rock concert than an acceptance speech.
Dick Durbin took the stage first. "With a name most people could not pronounce," he spoke of Obama. "He has spoken to a divided people about the better angels," Durbin continued. This was important because the country has been divided and America's middle class has all but disappeared. Despite the large crowd, the Senator from Illinois, who has been close to Obama for years, sounds good, clear to the audience. Durbin's speech then leads directly to a video of Obama's life.
The choreographed video shows his community service, meeting Michelle (his wife) and his rise in politics. The video highlighted education, social security, jobs and achievements in Washington. It was interesting to see how the video played out without mentioning his brevity of time in Washington compared with McCain. The video also strongly highlighted his white Mother and grandfather's influence in his life.
Obama took to the stage and every seat was filled with cheering fans in the picturesque INVESCO Stadium.
Obama proclaimed:
"To ensure the next generation can pursue their dreams as well."
"The American promise has been threatened." "More of you have lost your homes."
"America we are better than these last eight years, we are a better country than this."
"On November 4th we must stand up and say eight is enough."
"We are more compassionate than a government that lets our veterans sleep in our streets."
"John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. What does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right 90 percent of the time."
Obama went on to complain about McCain being out of touch with American life. That led into a laundry list of things that McCain "didn't get." Obama talked about the need to get away from our addiction to oil. Obama's plan suggested building on renewable energy that would then generate jobs that he said would not be outsourced.
"It's time for them to own their failure, it's time for us to change America and that is why I'm running for the president of the United States," Obama proclaimed.
Overall, the speech was well rounded and now Obama's best next step is taking his arguments into a debate with McCain. Early, in the day, Senator McCain ran an ad congratulating Obama for winning the Democratic Convention. But history proves that this race will turn ugly. Barack Obama's ability to stay above that is the key to his victory as McCain the GOP will do anything to defeat his presidency.
