Democratic Convention Day Four: OBAMA-THON! "Now Is The Time"

In its lead-up, Barack Obama's acceptance speech was perhaps the most highly anticipated in modern Democratic Convention history. With it the torch formally passed to Barack Obama from the Clintons. Overall, the four-day convention -- contrary to the caterwauling of Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel -- was an exuberant affair watched by over 20M Americans -- and that's just on the telly. As in the first three days, last night had a theme: Change You Can Believe In, allowing for stagecraft that leveraged Obama's celebrity connections (with performances by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, John Legend and will.i.am, and Michael McDonald) to complement the hard-hitting substantive speeches.

Falling on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech, Obama's acceptance was preceded by a tribute to Dr. King that was introduced by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, the Rev. Bernice King, and Martin Luther King, III. Check your party designation at the door, it raised goosebumps:

Taking a page from Sen. Kerry, Bill Richardson -- for a change - made me sit up and take note. Given his burnished resume and foreign policy experience, perhaps if he had been this tough during the primaries he might have nailed the VP nom. Richardson made explicit and welcome statements about the abuses of the White House, demanding that we "Stop Spying on Americans!," stop torture, and close Guantanamo. He also launched the evening's bloodsport - piercing the Myth of the Maverick, John McCain as simply more of the same. The speech is only eight minutes long, but packs a punch:

Al Gore was grown so much as a public speaker since the 2000 campaign. The robot that refused to have Bill Clinton campaign on his behalf has clearly found his life's work fighting Global Warming. His lectures and film, An Inconvenient Truth, have turned out to be prophetic. Even the world's leading climatologist Jim Hansen thinks that he was ahead of the curve. Following Richardson's lead Vice President Gore spoke of the failure of Bush/Cheney policies and how John McCain was in lockstep with virtually all of them. His coy applause line worked, mostly: "I believe in recycling but that's ridiculous." For close to an hour Gore gave a disciplined address equally about his strong suit -- the environment. But will he be out on the campaign trail now that McCain's picked a VP who believes in drilling, and in her own backyard?

The Main Event A crowd of close to 80,000 sprawled across Invesco Field to hear Barack Obama's acceptance address. The 2004 keynoter has moved at light speed from State Senator to Illinois Senator to Democratic nominee in a few short years. Could he deliver in his speech, the aptly entitled, "The American Promise"?

The DNC is to be lauded for the editorial discipline of the convention. Without being repetitive, each of the major speeches dovetailed and echoed one another. Obama's oratory had its usual flourishes of soaring rhetoric, while at the same time taking McCain to task: "What's it say when you think that George Bush was right 90% of the time?" Today WNYC's Brian Lehrer had clinical psychologist Paul Ekman deconstruct the facial, verbal, and body cues of the candidates - including this speech - where he found Obama managing toughness without anger - punctuated in his remarks with "Eight is enough!" -- referring to the Bush two terms. Two other direct hits: "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow Osama Bin Ladin to the Gates of Hell when he won't even follow him into the cave he lives in"; and "I got news for you John McCain, we ALL put our country first." The nominee effortlessly moved from the abstract to the concrete: Obama's pledge to end our dependence on foreign oil in ten years. To offer tax cuts to 95% of the public, ending capital gains taxes for small business owners.

Importantly for the tone of the campaign itself, Obama sought post-partisan common ground, explicitly calling out that we can have a civil discourse on hot-button issues, including abortion, gun rights, civil unions, and immigration. Perhaps Obama's greatest applause line of the evening spun off of his argument for equal pay (which McCain has consistently voted against): "I want my daughters to have the same exact opportunities as your sons."

It was as though Peggy "Thousand Points of Light" Noonan had switched parties and picked up her pen, bringing a muscular idealism to the fore. David Gergen, perhaps the most down-the-middle pundit (with authority) in front of a cable news mic today wasn't stinting with his praise: "It was less a speech than a symphony. [...] As a political speech it was a masterpiece." Text of the speech here.

Happy 72nd Birthday, John McCain.An hour ago McCain introduced Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin to the American public. She was a wildcard choice and for this, the Senator deserves our praise. Romney did look like a shoe-in, but guess who wants those 18M Hillary Clinton votes? (Good luck with that.) In many ways, Palin is the Maverick John McCain was once. Her record on fighting corruption -- mostly within her own party -- is impressive. Nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda" when she was a star high school basketball player, Palin's youth and competitive streak will be an asset to the campaign. Fred Barnes' July Weekly Standard profile here.

There's an outside chance that the Republican Convention next week might be postponed due to Hurricane Gustav. Weather.com is tracking the storm here.