Spelling out the change

Massive gathering on historic night

Senator Barack Obama acknowledged the more than 84,000 people who watched him accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field in Denver last night. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

DENVER - Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination last night at an elaborate and exuberant stadium ceremony, using his historic moment to specify what his lofty promises of change would mean for ordinary Americans.

In a speech to a crowd of more than 84,000, Obama addressed head-on the criticism that has dogged him since he secured the Democratic nomination this summer: that his call for "change we can believe in" is too vague and too detached from the tangible kitchen-table concerns of middle-class families.

"Let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president," Obama said in his 45-minute speech, laden as much with policy details as with the soaring rhetoric for which he is known.

He said he would reallocate tax breaks from companies that ship jobs overseas to companies that build their American workforces; eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and technology start-ups; set a goal for ending US dependence on Middle Eastern oil in 10 years; invest $150 billion in renewable energy technology; and cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.

"Listen now," Obama said, as if to make sure the throngs absorbed the details. "I will cut taxes - 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."

The stagecraft of Obama's speech, the capstone to the four-day Democratic National Convention, lived up to its billing - thousands of flashbulbs lighting up the warm Denver night, a sea of people waving Americans flags and signs reading "Change," Obama's visage broadcast on giant video screens at Invesco Field. But his boldly chosen setting also risked playing into Republican criticism that his candidacy is too heavy on spectacle and too light on substance.

Obama had to navigate between two different goals last night. On one hand, his campaign wanted to honor the historic significance of the moment: Obama is the first African-American presidential nominee from a major party, in a country where racial divisions are still raw. His acceptance speech marked the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington.

At the same time, locked in a tight race with McCain, Obama had to persuade skeptical voters that he can meet them on their level, is capable of understanding their worries, and get more specific about his plans for the country.

Over and over last night, Obama told anecdotes of regular Americans, rooting his story in theirs and directing his policy ideas squarely at them. He talked about the unemployed, the sick, the old, the families who endure in the face of hardship.

"These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that have shaped my life," he said. "And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States."

People who came to hear Obama speak liked his specificity.

"I thought it was really important that he gave particulars of what we can expect," said Justine Barone, a 27-year-old Denver resident who works at a nonprofit. "He was convincing at having an actual economic plan for financing the plans that he proposed, so it was believable he could pull it off."

Darlene Bowen, a 54-year-old family therapist from Denver, added, "He didn't just say what he was going to do, but he laid out a plan for how he was going to do it."

Obama's speech kicked off the first leg of what promises to be a grueling and unpredictable fall campaign for him and his running mate, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

With Democrats nervous about the close race and anxious to see a post-convention bump in opinion polls, Obama and Biden set off today on their first joint campaign swing as the official Democratic ticket, launching their "On the Road to Change" tour with a scheduled stop in Pennsylvania.

But with the fanfare of the Democratic convention now fading, Obama and Biden will struggle for the public's attention. The spotlight now turns to McCain and the Republicans. McCain is expected to reveal his running mate today, and the GOP is ramping up for its convention in St. Paul next week.

McCain's campaign, which has been attacking Obama fiercely for weeks, last night broadcast an ad in which McCain recognized Obama's achievement.

"Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America," McCain said in the 30-second spot, which aired during the evening. "Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, 'Congratulations.' How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day."

But Obama was very tough on McCain last night, even as he acknowledged his service to the country. His heart was in the right place, Obama said, but he "doesn't get it."

"America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this," he said. "We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight."

Though Obama devoted much of his speech to domestic issues, he hammered McCain on foreign policy repeatedly.

"John McCain likes to say that he'll follow [Osama] bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even go to the cave where he lives," he said. "We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past."

The McCain campaign issued a swift response saying, "Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama . . . The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be president."

Obama sought to preempt, as many other Democrats have tried to do this week in Denver, the attacks Republicans will surely launch against Democrats on national security at their convention.

"Don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe," Obama said. "The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are to restore that legacy."

Obama got one of his biggest cheers of the night when he invoked his memorable keynote speech to the Democratic convention in Boston four years ago that first put him on the political map. He said of US troops, "They have not served a 'red' America or a 'blue' America - they have served the United States of America."

US Representative John Lewis of Georgia, who marched with King during the civil rights movement, and Bernice King, King's daughter, invoked the slain civil rights leader's words to cast Obama as his heir.

"Tonight we witness in part what has become of his dream: the acceptance by Senator Barack Obama of the presidential Democratic nomination, decided not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character," King said.

For Obama's campaign, his appearance at Invesco Field yesterday was more than just a made-for-TV spectacle. It was a grass-roots organizing opportunity. The campaign instructed the more than 84,000 who attended to use their cellphones and special phones set up around the stadium to reach out to other voters.

Obama said they wanted to move the convention to Invesco Field to open it up to the thousands of supporters not high enough in the Democratic hierarchy to get a coveted ticket to the Pepsi Center, where the convention had been held.

"I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring," Obama said. "What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's about you."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. Sasha Issenberg of the Globe staff contributed to this report.