Eight years of Bush 'is enough'
Published Friday August 29th, 2008
Barack Obama rocks the West | An estimated 75,000 in stadium to witness historic speech
DENVER - Barack Obama, launching his historic campaign for the White House with an outdoor Democratic National Convention extravaganza, pledged Thursday to "fix the broken politics" in Washington after he defeats Republican John McCain.
"We are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this," Obama said, referring to President George W. Bush's two terms in office.
One day after becoming the first black man to win a major party presidential nomination, Obama delivered the most important speech of his improbable candidacy, a prime-time address to an estimated 75,000 inside Denver's NFL
stadium and uncounted millions watching at home on television.
Seeking to weld his Republican rival to the outgoing Bush presidency, Obama said that McCain as a senator had voted with Bush 90 per cent of the time.
"I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a 10 per cent chance on change," Obama said.
"We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil and the American promise has been threatened once more.''
He said it's time to change leadership in Washington after eight years of the Bush administration.
"On Nov. 4," he said, "we must stand up and say: 'Eight is enough'."
Obama said that more Americans now are out of work or working harder for less, more have lost homes or are watching home values plummet, have cars they can't afford, credit card bills they can't pay and tuition that is beyond reach.
"These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush," he said. Obama said he was setting a goal "for the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet," of ending dependence on oil from the Middle East in 10 years.
Playing on Bush's assertion in his 2007 state of the union address that the nation was "addicted" to foreign oil, Obama said: "Now is the time to end this addiction."
Obama also sought to ease any concerns Americans might have that he wasn't prepared to be commander in chief, or that Democrats were not as trustworthy as Republicans on national security.
"We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So 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," he said.
"As commander in chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home," he said.
Former vice-president Al Gore spoke shortly before Obama's speech.
He told Democrats that the 2008 election is close because defenders of the status quo "are desperately afraid of the change Barack Obama represents."
And Gore said he knows something about close elections - he lost one, in overtime, in 2000, to Bush.
Gore said Bush's leadership has spelled calamity and McCain would bring more of the same.
Gore said that when he ran against Bush, some people saw little difference between them and thought the outcome wouldn't matter much.
"But here we all are in 2008 and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn't matter."
"Today, we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000," Gore said. "John McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of the Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them, the same policies all over again."
"Hey, I believe in recycling, but that's ridiculous," said Gore, drawing cheers from the crowd.
Obama's convention finale blended old-fashioned speechmaking, Hollywood-quality stagecraft and innovative, Internet age politics.
Aides pledged a direct conversation with voters about the choice between Obama, a 47-year-old Illinois senator, and McCain, an Arizona senator who is turning 72 this week.
To the west, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, thousands waited in bright sunshine to gain admission to Invesco Field at Mile High, the stadium that had been turned into Obama's soundstage for the night at an estimated cost of $5 million.
By happenstance, the 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.
Obama's aides were interested in a different historical parallel - Obama was the first to deliver an outdoor convention acceptance speech since John F. Kennedy did so at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960.
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