Obama says he'll cut taxes, end Iraq War
Updated: 2008-08-29 11:05
DENVER -- Before an enormous, adoring crowd, Barack Obama promised a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush" Thursday night as he embarked on the final lap of his audacious bid to become the nation's first black president.
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Democratic presidential nominee US Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) walks onstage to give his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Invesco field in Denver, Colorado August 28, 2008. [Agencies]
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"Now is not the time for small plans," the 47-year-old Illinois senator told an estimated 84,000 people packed into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.
He vowed to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade.
Obama called Sen. John McCain, his Republican rival, a good man who "just doesn't get it"_ a backer of economic policies that favor the rich and a senator who "stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war."
"John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time," he said, attempting to pre-empt his rival's claim that he is a maverick who breaks with the administration on key issues.
Obama's formal acceptance speech was delivered in a dramatic setting, the filled stadium, the camera flashes in the night, the made-for-television backdrop that suggested the White House, and the thousands of convention delegates seated around the podium in an enormous semicircle.
Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden. of Delaware, leave their convention city on Friday for Pennsylvania, first stop on an eight-week sprint to Election Day.
Polls indicate a close race between Obama and McCain, the Arizona senator who stands between him and a place in history.
McCain countered with a bold move of his own, hoping to steal some of the political spotlight by spreading word that he had settled on a vice presidential running mate. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty canceled all scheduled appearances for the next two days, stoking speculation that he was the one.
By happenstance, Obama's big evening coincided with the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream Speech" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
"Tonight we are gathered here in this magnificent stadium in Denver because we still have a dream," said Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who marched with King, supported Obama's primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then switched under pressure from younger black leaders in his home state and elsewhere.
Obama's aides were interested in a different historical parallel from King — Obama was the first to deliver an outdoor convention acceptance speech since John F. Kennedy did so at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960.
In his speech, Obama pledged to jettison Bush's economic policy — and replace it with his own designed to help hard-pressed families.
"I will cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class," he said.
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