Less than 50 years after people with Obama's complexion were forbidden from voting in some states, Obama became the first African American to accept the presidential nomination of one of the country's two major political parties.
Far up in the stands, Lionel Washington, 24, passed his hand over his face as if he were in a dream. "I can't believe I'm here," said Washington, who is black and works for his Democratic precinct in Denver. "I'm going to cry," he said when Obama took the stage. "I can't cry," he said, as his eyes filled with tears. "Change is gonna come!" he screamed.
Adding to the historical resonance, Obama noted his speech came on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" address.
"Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!" King said that day; Obama's triumph, standing in the shadow of those mountains, suggested the country was closer to the colorblind society King saw from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
For the most important speech of his political career, Obama chose a setting as audacious as his candidacy itself: a raised blue-carpeted platform at the center of the coliseum, with a backdrop of Greco-Tuscan columns and more than a dozen American flags.
Republicans mocked the spectacle, calling it further proof that the Democratic nominee was an empty-suited celebrity smitten with himself. Outside the Pepsi Center arena, where Democrats gathered for the first three nights of their convention, a small circle of demonstrators swathed in togas sarcastically chanted, "We're not worthy!"
McCain broke from a week of attacks to congratulate his opponent in a TV spot. "Tomorrow, we'll be back at it," McCain said, smiling into the camera, "but tonight, senator, job well done." He hopes to seize back a bit of the limelight today by announcing his vice presidential running mate at a rally in Dayton, Ohio.
Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, will set out today on a tour of battleground states, starting in Pennsylvania.
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Linking McCain to Bush
Democrats had spent the first days of the convention introducing their ticket to America, stitching the wounds between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who received a passing mention at the top of Obama's speech -- and attempting to lash McCain to the unpopular Bush legacy.
