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 Middle East 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?” Obama asked.
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.”
(Associated Press)
