The Sophian

Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Sara Aboulafia Thousands packed into a Denver stadium to hear Barack Obama's acceptance speech, including Smith student Sara Aboulafia.

Thousands waited in the summer heat on Aug. 28 to see Barack Obama give an acceptance speech for his historic democratic nomination for the presidency at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High. Many of those waiting received their coveted Obama tickets by volunteering for the Colorado Campaign for Change, a grassroots effort to raise support for the candidate. 38 million viewers watched from their homes on a day that also marked the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Barack Obama can clearly attract a crowd, a fact that the McCain campaign has been depicting negatively as Obama's "celebrity" appeal and lack of substance. Obama's speech was aimed squarely at those accusations, conveying Obama as a family man who pursued his own unique American dream and was in touch with working and middle-class Americans' deepest concerns. At a time of economic recession, Obama pulled no punches in differentiating his economic policies from McCain, whom he has repeatedly described as being both economically ignorant and "more of the same."
After a short video biography of the candidate, the convention took a surprising turn. Rather than bring out celebrity-supporters to endorse Obama, the campaign had several "ordinary" Americans speak to the imposingly large audience, which filled the Denver Broncos' home turf from the field to the nose-bleed seats. These "hard-working" but embattled teachers and housewives didn't want "four more years" of Bush's policies with McCain as president.
"We need an America that puts Barney Smith before Smith-Barney [the global investment banking firm]," one former Republican said, inspiring the audience to chant his name in a manner more befitting to a football game than a political speech. The choice to highlight these unknowns echoed Obama's repeated point: "What the naysayers don't understand is that this campaign is not about me, it's about you."
Taking a preemptive attack on any skeptic who accused Obama as being all rhetoric, Obama said that he would "spell out exactly what [change] would mean if [he is] president," and he didn't hesitate to give facts and figures. Like his plan to get the troops out of Iraq in 16 months: Obama promised that in 10 years we would "finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East," through investment in renewable energy -which would "create jobs" - clean-burning coal and nuclear energy, inspiring the crowd to stand up and cheer.

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