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AP
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hugs his wife, Michelle Obama, after giving his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver Thursday. |
Obama starts next leg of campaign
By The Associated Press
DENVER (AP) - Fresh off his historic nominating convention, Democrat Barack Obama embarked on a crucial stage of his campaign for the White House today as Republican John McCain sought to upstage his rival with the announcement of his running mate.
Obama leaves the convention city of Denver as the first black man to be nominated for president by a major political party. The 47-year-old Illinois senator won over the party faithful - even some die-hard backers of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - but the broader electorate awaits.
His first stop: the battleground states of the Midwest. On Friday, Obama flies to Pittsburgh, where he and running mate Joe Biden will kick off a bus tour of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
The goal is to maintain the buzz of a convention that culminated Thursday night with Obama addressing an energetic, flag-waving crowd of 84,000 packed into Denver's pro football stadium.
“Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time,” Obama told the adoring crowd at Invesco Field. “America, this is one of those moments.”
In the jam-packed football stadium, Obama promised an end to eight years of “broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush” and argued that McCain “doesn't get it.”
He pledged to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. Portraying a McCain administration as a continuation of the current Bush White House, Obama said, “On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: 'Eight is enough.”'
For complete story, see today's Ledger & Times
Story created Aug 29, 2008 - 11:50:24 EDT.
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