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Obama in Denver for date with destiny
DENVER, Colorado
Petroleumworld.com, Aug 28, 2008After a slow procession through battleground states, Barack Obama flew into Denver Wednesday for his historic coronation as the first black presidential nominee of a major US party.
The Illinois senator was to be acclaimed the Democratic champion for November's election against Republican John McCain after a symbolic "roll-call" vote to acknowledge the breakthrough candidacy of his rival Hillary Clinton.
Then on Thursday night, Obama will deliver the most important speech of a career already littered with celebrated addresses when he accepts the nomination in front of more than 70,000 supporters in a Denver stadium.
That was to follow the acceptance speech of his new vice presidential running mate, Senator Joseph Biden, later Wednesday, with the pair planning their first joint campaign swing through rust-belt states this weekend.
Aides said Obama would stay out of the limelight when the landmark vote occurs, likely retreating to his hotel in downtown Denver to work on his speech.
He has earned a name for electrifying oratory, ever since bursting onto the national stage at the last Democratic convention four years ago. But the 47-year-old senator is promising a more "workmanlike" speech this time.
However, his chief strategist David Axelrod denied this meant the speech would be mundane.
"He thinks we can be direct and clear to the people without being boring," he told reporters on the flight into Denver from Montana.
"He'll make it respectful but he won't shy away from the drawing the contrast" with McCain, Axelrod added, underlining Obama's message that this election is the US public's chance to vote for a decisive break with the past.
Some of the themes have become clear as Obama has daily laid into McCain on the economy, castigating the Republican senator as "out of touch" at a time of home foreclosures, job losses and rising prices.
At a gathering earlier Wednesday with about 225 veterans and members of military families in Billings, Montana, Obama said the nation owed the Vietnam War hero gratitude for his public service.
"But we don't owe him our vote, because the stakes are too high," he said.
"We have a choice in this election. Do we have a president who gets that people are struggling every day, who gets that veterans are struggling every day, or do we have somebody who doesn't get it?
"And so I am going to fight as hard as I can over the next 70 days to make clear to the American people that they deserve a president and a White House that is fighting for them, that's not fighting for the special interests, that's not fighting for the banks and the oil companies and the well-connected."
Obama again raised his own humble origins and those of his wife Michelle, a key theme of the convention at a time when Democrats are ridiculing McCain for not knowing how many houses he owns.
And on national security, he attacked McCain for advocating an indefinite stay for US forces in Iraq as he called for a new diplomacy after eight years of combative foreign policy under President George W. Bush.
Briefing reporters on Monday ahead of his acceptance address, Obama said: "I'm not aiming for a lot of high rhetoric. I'm much more concerned with communicating how I intend to help middle-class families live their lives."
But on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's legendary "I Have a Dream" speech, there will doubtless be plenty of poetical notes along with the prose as Obama becomes the first African-American with a viable shot at the White House.
The Democrat headed to Denver after criss-crossing his way across Republican-leaning states such as Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Missouri and Montana -- underlining his intention to take the fight to McCain nationwide.
Story by Jitendra Joshi from AFP
AFP 27 2113 GMT 08 08
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