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Barack Obama accepted the Democratic party's presidential nomination in front of a reported crowd of 84,000 at Denver's Invesco Field, saying, "Tonight, I say to the people of America, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land — enough!" He blamed President George W. Bush's "failed policies," and said, “America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
Obama emphasized the economic hardships Americans have had to face, making it clear he wasn't standing for John McCain's characterization that he was a celebrity. He pointed out how McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time, "Senator 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? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.” Obama also questioned McCain's foreign policies, "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."
Here's a transcript and video is after the jump. Today was also notable for being the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. McCain released an ad congratulating Obama and noting today's significance today, but his campaign has just released a statement criticizing Obama's speech ("Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. "). Plus, rumors about McCain supposedly picking a VP reached full boil today; the Republican candidate is expected to make an announcement tomorrow, to minimize any bump in the polls for Obama.
Up next: The Republican National Convention is next week (well, weather-permitting) in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. The two candidates will have their first debate on September 26.
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Let it just be election day right now.
WOW! He wasn't MLK II and he wasn't even David Palmer but when Obama went Denzel on our asses that's when I knew I was looking at the next president. I shudder to think what the feeble old bastard can do to topple Obama's rising baritone. He'll be wheezing and huffing just to keep pace. I like the fact that McCain had an Ad to praise Obama as the first black nominee and Obama praised McCain's service and dedication but attacked his direction. I'd like to ask why both nominees pick the VP just 2 months before an election. The second highest office in the land and Americans only get 2 months to look at his resume? that's fucked up. Rules gotta be changed.
Hardships??????
Millions of people are dying to come here to live - from all over the globe
Who cares.
Coming so close after the Olympics, I couldn't help wondering why these convention speeches weren't being judged. Hillary gets a 9.5 and Obama just got his usual 10. There isn't anyone in America that does what he does. He's singular and he's formidable. This passion and intelligence combined with strong, visionary ideas would make Barack Obama a Mount Rushmore figure. We have to have more, we have to have it all.
I don't understand why people laud a candidate and make him sound like he should be going for sainthood when he promisees some pretty outlandish things when the president, as one person, has no power. Remember, that we gave up the whole power-to-one-person thing when we broke off from England a few--just a few--years ago. Want real change? Vote the bums out of Congress. They're the only ones that can promise these kinds of things. Sure, it would be nice to have a president that's going to sign these bills when they're presented to him, but Congress can still overthrow a president's veto. This is why I can't get excited for a presidential candidate...he can't do anything that he promises.
I really wish they played back in black as his theme song.
@6
You have some valid points, but we can't make any changes as a group if we are are all just pessimists. Might as well try, right?
@6
With a majority in both houses of Congress, it is far more likely that Obama will be able to push much of his agenda through.
"This is why I can't get excited for a presidential candidate"
For the first time in decades, Democrats will control both houses of Congress and possibly the Presidency. Their majorities will probably increase after this election so that gives them far more wiggle room to get things done.
Just give me a president who isn't a corporate shill or religious warmonger. The fancy talk is just icing.
All that money BO has raised comes with serious strings.
@6
By God you're right!
Well I guess we should all just stay at home and not bother voting at all, then, because who we had in the White House for the last eight years certainly didn't make a difference at all.
BTW, one needs look no further than the last eight years to see the impact one man can have on the country and the world.
I get what some people above are saying -- its hard to believe things like this when politicians make a wealth of promises. Change is hard - despite everything - if Obama does make it he'll have to deal with the same washington bureaucracy thats been around for years.
But I do have hope. There were some parts of his speech last night that made me go hmm. Its not really the promises - but the open minded optimism that I responded to. I have to think that one of the main roles of a president is to inspire and impact the people he brings to work for him. Inspired people do more and will do more to help themselves. Having seen the grassroots campaign around me during primary time is the main reason I switched from Hillary to him.
This country really needs some major fixing up - if nothing else in the area of health care. Being a cynical new yorker, i'm expecting in some way to be let down. But i'm hoping i'll be surprised.
how can one say washington can't change?
just look at the last eight years.
Both Obama and McCain, along with anyone else who wants to be president, probably shouldn't be. We'd be better off if we picked someone randomly out of the phonebook for the job.
#6- whatever bro. The difference between a democrat and a republican is that a Democrat says he won't fuck you in the ass if you pick him but of course he fucks you in the ass and the republican says he'll fuck you in the ass but very gently so you pick him and he reams your ass it bleeds and cries. They both will fuck you in the ass at the end of the day. They are politicians. It's what they do. So the question becomes, who would you rather get fucked in the ass by? Virile Obama or Old Gray pubes McCain?
Obama is certainly a good speaker but I dont know. Where is most of his money coming from? (and the grassroots people dont really count even if they raised a lot since they are too disorganized and have too many different payback requests). A quick look and Obama will have to pay back these groups first: #1 lawyers and lobbyists. More laws, more regulations for them to charge more money for dealing with. #2. Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Possibly insulation from any fall-out they've caused in sub-prime mortgages #3 Communications and electronics. [i have no idea what these people are gonna ask for]
Anyway, you should all forget bout the speech and base decisions on where these guys are gettin their cash from cuz thats how these politicians work, u get cash from industries and companies and then you have to pay back your loan.
The most intriguing thing is theres a lot of these industries that will give equal amounts, or nearly equal amounts to BOTH candidates. That means those industries can't lose! They can expect to be taken care of no matter who wins.
Toby, I find that incredibly hard to believe.
The counter argument to having the White House and Congress held by the same party is that it correlates to higher increases in spending. How likely is it a President will veto a spending bill passed by his own party?
GREAT SPEECH!!
Really, BH? Eww.
I like Obama, he's an appealing candidate.
What I'm concerned about is what others have mentioned. He'll be coming in with a Democratic House and Senate, and that will result in some laws that aren't talked about so much (or that people don't really understand) being passed.
The Employee Free Choice Act will change how unions are recognized, eliminate elections -- unions will be in if they get 50% authorization cards signed (opening the door to coercive pressure that elections protect from). Unions mostly mean higher costs and less competitive business.
I also noticed that a few speakers mentioned equal pay for women. Of course, everyone supports that- in fact, the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. Women ARE required to be paid the same wage for the same work. The new law the politicians are alluding to is called the Paycheck Fairness Act. All this Act does is make it easier and more lucrative for women to bring claims--regardless of merit. It eliminates criteria that currently can justify differences in pay for different positions, such as dangerous work and work requiring heavy manual labor (jobs that can be peformed by men AND women, but predominantly attract men) from pay assessments. That's ridiculous- it's logical for dangerous, labor-intensive jobs to pay more than safe, non-labor intensive ones within an industry. The Act also removes punitive damages caps, which really only increases pressure on employers to settle meritless suits. That's less of a victory for women than it is for plaintiff's lawyers.
Universal Health Care, I'm kind of on the fence about. It could work out okay, or it could be a huge disaster, but maybe it's worth a try.
Like I said, I like Obama. If I could pick an outcome, I would be happy with him winning the White House if the Republicans had a chance of keeping enough Senate seats to provide some check on what's going to happen in the next 4 years, because there's going to be a floodwave of new laws and entitlements that have deceptively nice-sounding names but will have consequences that most people don't think about or understand.
As things stand, it looks very likely that the Democrats, who already control the House and Senate, will gain more seats in each.
Realistically, the best chance for gridlock is the outside chance that McCain can win. If that happened, he wouldn't have the ability to pass any tax cuts or agenda through a Democratic House and Senate. The House and Senate would push new laws, and McCain would presumably veto most of it. Depending on how big the Democratic majority in the Senate ends up, they might be able to override veto, but at least he would be a speed bump. That's a good thing in my opinion, recognizing others might have a different one.
Agree with EastRiver. There is more at stake here than a beauty contest between Obama and McCain, though that's what we get caught up in. The President is the focal point of our government, but does not make the laws. It's simplistic to give credit or blame to a President for everything that takes place during his or her term, but that's what most people tend to do.
It's strange to me that the speeches by Senators Kennedy, or Biden, or Clinton, or Obama chide McCain for what he has or hasn't done - when he is also a Senator- but on the other hand talk about change, which begs the question, what have they been doing the past 8+ years?
The scariest thing about Bush's administration is the boundaries he's pushed in the realm of executive power and privilege. That is also what made a potential Clinton redeux so bad....those egos with that precedent in abuse of power.
@andoman:
for your #3, telecom immunity and help in maintaining monopolies and possibly killing network neutrality.
Biden is ass deep in this stuff and not for us:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080824/tc_cnet/83011357831002416338
Biden is also a banker's wet dream.
As far as the lawyers go, don't expect any universal healthcare to work without real tort reform, unless you want to spend 30% of the GNP on it.
There were also some inexplicable variations in the speeches.
For instance, Obama last night said
"But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time."
The night before, Biden said:
"And in the Senate, John sided with President Bush 95 percent of the time."
Now, the substance of the point is the same- McCain has supported Bush. But I can't understand how they can be so sloppy with what is obviously a key point in their run. Was it 90 or 95%?
Or when Obama last night said:
Washington has been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years. And, by the way, John McCain has been there for 26 of them.
He also said: Today, we import triple the amount of oil than we had on the day that Senator McCain took office.
Ted Kennedy has been a Senator for 46 years, Joe Biden, 35 years. Hillary for 8 of them. Bill was President for 8 before. It's not so much that I disagree with attacking McCain as an insider, but the complete logical disconnect that bothers me. Obama is no dummy, he certainly understands that much of what he is saying about McCain is true for the people he has surrounded himself with and has been singing the praises of.
Biden said Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he said only three years ago, "Afghanistan — we don't read about it anymore because it's succeeded"? Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?
Again, comparing what McCain said 3 years ago on Afganistan, to what Barack said 1 year ago is comparing apples to oranges. It's not that their positions shouldn't be compared, but the slight of hand in making these statements bothers me.
I guess that's politics, but it's odd to me that the people who listen to these speeches don't seem to hear what is said.
There may be more like that, the points I quoted are just ones that really jumped out at me when I heard them.
Here are the transcripts:
NY Times Obama transcript: http://tinyurl.com/599nxx
NPR Biden Transript: http://tinyurl.com/5vxvnk
I've noticed the really cool thing about Obama is that none of his detractors attack him ferociously cause he's black and they fear being labeled a racist so they all go for this wishy washy passive aggressive stance on him like all the commentors on this blog. You know if he was white like McCain they'd rip him a new one. That's a plus in my book. Everyone has to walk around Eggshells with obama and that's great.
I noticed all of those things you mentioned, eyekantspel.
We ARE better than the last eight years! MP3 highlights are up here.
Takethecanoli... so since the lawyers have so much invested in Obama, that administration can't really do any tort reform since that would cut lawyer earnings by so much. So forget bout this health care thing.
For some reason I think despite whatever McCain is saying/promising at this point in time, he has the ability to transcend that since he's so old and won't be around to worry about the afterward.
6 - the thing about Obama is, though he's praised as a savior of our times, he's just one man and he knows it. Everything that he promises will have to be accomplished by cooperation, and you know what, that's what we need in a president. Someone who knows what needs to be done, and knows who to get involved in projects to get them done. Not someone who promises big things, then distracts with others.
andoman - his money is coming from people like me. All I want in return is a country I can be proud of.
Well put Jen S!
-Change is not coming from Washington, Change is coming to Washington.
He sealed it with that one.
"America, We Are Better than These Last Eight Years"
Bullshit.
Taliban, can you back up your cynicism by saying anything with substance? or was that sarcasm?
"Taliban, can you back up your cynicism by saying anything with substance? or was that sarcasm?"
Sure...
Bullshit!.