Obama pledges better future for America

America is better than the country it has been during the Bush administrations of the last eight years, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said today.

Delivering the most important speech of his life to more than 80,000 people at an open-air stadium in Denver, Colorado, Mr Obama left no doubt it was time for change and said it was time for voters to stand up and say: “Eight is enough!”

“America, we are better than these last eight years,” he said. “We are a better country than this.”

Mr Obama, who is the first African American US presidential nominee of a major party, said: “This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.”

The 47-year-old Illinois senator said his Republican rival John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, had “worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction” but he warned that his record was clear.

“John McCain has voted with George Bush 90% of the time,” he said. “Senator McCain likes to talk about judgement, but really, what does it say about your judgement when you think George Bush has been right more than 90% of the time?

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a 10% chance on change.”

Mr Obama, whose keynote address at the party’s 2004 convention shot him to fame, was giving his historic speech 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr inspired the world with his “I Have a Dream” speech.

He addressed America, and the world, from a stage featuring faux columns which look like a Greek temple – designed to suggest the gravitas of a federal building in Washington DC, it has immediately been labelled the “Temple of Obama” by Republicans.

But after being criticised as a celebrity who is not ready to be America’s commander-in-chief by Mr McCain, Mr Obama’s campaign took steps to make the occasion feel more intimate and personal than the boisterous rallies which, in one instance, attracted more than 200,000 people.

Camera angles showed him among the crowd, rather than above it, and efforts were made to project Mr Obama as an ordinary American who understands the problems faced by voters.

Obama campaign aides said the final day of the convention was moved outside to the Invesco Field stadium in a bid to show his candidacy extends beyond the politicians who have dominated the convention so far.

Ten supporters, including some who donated only $5, were invited to join Mr Obama backstage beforehand and watched his speech from the front row.