Obama melds policy with punch

by Jim Tankersley

DENVER--The flags waved and the "change" signs flapped and the flashes twinkled like fireflies. And the son of a Kansan and a Kenyan channeled a preacher with a dream, a Democrat from Hope and a Republican who saw morning in America, as 80,000 strong shook a coliseum with their feet.

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night on a specially constructed soundstage in Denver's Invesco Field. His 44-minute speech mixed a searing indictment of his Republican opponent and the Republican incumbent with Clintonesque personal touches and Reaganesque optimism, promising to repair "the broken politics of Washington" and preside over a more prosperous and equitable America.

"Tonight," Obama said, "I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land--enough! This moment--this election--is our chance to keep, in the 21st Century, the American promise alive. "

The speech rode a line between policy and personal revelation, between high-flown oratory and elbow-grease appeals to the working class voters who have stubbornly eluded him throughout the campaign.

He slapped at rival John McCain even as he called for an end to Washington's partisan politics, including appeals for common ground on contentious issues: abortion, gay rights, gun control and immigration. And he addressed nearly every major criticism of himself and his campaign head-on.

"I don't believe that Sen. McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans," he said. "I just think he doesn't know." And: "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." And "John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time ... I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.

Jim Tankersley writes for the Chicago Tribune. Read the full story on Obama's speech at ChicagoTribune.com.