At last, it would seem that folks here in the US have gotten their priorities straight for once. The New York Times is reporting that at least 40 million folks here in the US tuned in to watch Senator Barack Obama give his nomination acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver, CO (which was packed with 80,000 people) on Thursday night to close out the 4-day Democratic National Convention (which means a total 40,800,000 people watched Barack Obama’s speech in person or on TV alone). In a time where frivolities like American Idol and The Hills seems to rule supreme, more Americans tuned in to watch Obama’s convention speech than did to even watch the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics:

At least 40 million Americans watched Senator Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination for president Thursday night, a record for convention viewership that exceeded even the expectations of his aides. The historic speech by the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party reached 38.4 million viewers on 10 broadcast and cable networks, Nielsen Media Research said Friday. PBS estimated that an additional 3.5 million had watched its prime-time coverage. The ratings dwarfed the audience for the Summer Olympics and the season finale of “American Idol” in May, and added to what was already a sense of buoyancy within the Obama campaign that the night had gone better than planned. Despite Republicans’ advance ridicule of the enormous venue, Invesco Field, and the set, an elaborate, columned backdrop, Democrats went to bed having heard terrific reviews of the final night of their convention. Indeed, the backdrop, initially derided as resembling a Greek temple — playing into the Republican line of attack that Mr. Obama’s supporters had deified him — turned out to be something of a hit; television reviewers and commentators praised the overall staging. “The stagecraft was so phenomenal,” Andrea Mitchell said on MSNBC, adding, “I don’t know how they could have done it any better.” The four-night convention was the most-watched since 1960, when Nielsen began measuring the events. The 10 p.m. hour, Eastern time, from Monday to Thursday was viewed by an average of 22.4 million households, Nielsen said, surpassing by half a million the Republican convention of 1976, previously top-rated. The comparisons with prior conventions come with a number of caveats: convention coverage is shown on more channels now, and the coverage is shorter, at least on the broadcast networks. Regardless, Thursday night’s record was surely impressive. The television audience for Mr. Obama’s speech was half again as large as the viewership for the acceptance speeches by President Bush and Senator John Kerry in 2004. “Obama had an opportunity to get his message across to a record-breaking crowd of millions of American voters, and he used it effectively,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the campaign. Demonstrating the gradual shift in the political news audience from broadcast to cable, CNN attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks during the 10 p.m. hour on Wednesday and Thursday. (Fox News Channel defeated the broadcasters during the Republican convention in 2004.) Mr. Obama’s speech, which he gave in that hour, reached 8.1 million viewers on CNN, 6.6 million on ABC, 6.1 million on NBC, 4.7 million on CBS, 4.2 million on Fox News, and 4.1 million on MSNBC. Other viewers watched on additional channels … online the speech had been viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube by Friday evening.

I cannot tell you how encouraged by this news I am. I am really comforted by the fact that so many folks here in the US are actually paying attention to this presidential election. I spent the lion’s share of yesterday evening watching various news programs about Obama’s convention speech and McCain’s VP selection and even Obama’s detractors had to concede that he gave an amazingly stirring speech. I must add, tho, that in all the coverage I watched about the new Republican nominee for Vice President, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, I was very alarmed to learn that prior to McCain picking Palin to be his #2 he had only MET HER IN PERSON ONCE … and that was just earlier THIS YEAR! Oh yes, I learned a lot about the new Republican VP nominee which only solidified my support for my candidate. In any event, again, I’m very encouraged that folks are paying attention to this election and it is my sincere hope that people will continue to educate themselves on the candidates who are campaigning to lead this country.

Click HERE to read the full transcript of Barack Obama’s DNC nomination acceptance speech. After the jump, watch the You Tube video of his speech in full …

READ THE REST OF THIS POST »

It’s official. Senator Barack Obama, from the State of Illinois, has formally accepted the nomination by the Democratic Party as candidate for President of the United States of America. On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s I Have A Dream speech, Obama delivered a thundering speech (wherein he formally accepted his party’s nomination and explained to the crowd,the country as a whole and the world how he plans to bring change to the US) at Invesco Field in Denver, CO to close out the Democratic National Convention last night. Here are a few pics of Obama delivering his speech and a pic of Obama with his wife Michelle and his running mate Joe Biden (with his wife Jill) as they stepped forward together, into history, on the way to the campaign trail:

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Thursday, declaring that the “American promise has been threatened” by eight years under President Bush and that John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world. The speech by Senator Obama, in front of an audience of nearly 80,000 people on a warm night in a football stadium refashioned into a vast political stage for television viewers, left little doubt how he intended to press his campaign against Mr. McCain this fall. In cutting language, and to cheers that echoed across the stadium, he linked Mr. McCain to what he described as the “failed presidency of George W. Bush” and — reflecting what has been a central theme of his campaign since he entered the race — “the broken politics in Washington.” “America, we are better than these last eight years,” he said. “We are a better country than this.” But Mr. Obama went beyond attacking Mr. McCain by linking him to Mr. Bush and his policies. In the course of a 42-minute speech that ended with a booming display of fireworks and a shower of confetti, he offered searing and far-reaching attacks on his presumptive Republican opponent, repeatedly portraying him as the face of the old way of politics and failed Republican policies. He said Mr. McCain was out of touch with the problems of everyday Americans. “It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care,” he said. “It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.” And he went so far as to attack the presumed strength of Mr. McCain’s campaign, national security. “You know, John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives,” he said. The speech loomed as arguably Mr. Obama’s most important of the campaign to date. It was an opportunity to present himself to Americans just now beginning to tune in on this campaign, to make the case against Mr. McCain and to offer what many Democrats say he has failed to offer to date: an idea of what he stands for, beyond a promise of change. To that end, he emphasized what he described as concrete steps he would take to address the anxieties of working-class Americans, promising tax cuts for the middle class and pledging to wean the country from dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years to address high fuel prices. With the speech, Mr. Obama closed out his party’s convention here and prepared for a quick shift of public attention to the Republicans as Mr. McCain moved to name his running mate and his party got ready for its convention in St. Paul on Monday. He delivered it in a most unconventional setting, becoming the third nominee of a major party in the nation’s history to leave the site of his convention to give his acceptance speech at a stadium. In this case, it was Invesco Field, set against the Rockies and about a mile from the arena where he had been nominated the night before. His aides chose the stadium to signal a break from typical politics and to permit thousands of his supporters from across the country to hear him speak. And it came on a night that offered — by the coincidence of scheduling — a reminder of the historic nature of the Obama candidacy: 45 years to the day after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the Mall in Washington. Mr. Obama is the first African-American to be nominated for the White House by a major party, a fact that, for all its significance, has been barely mentioned over the course of this four-day gathering. Even in invoking the anniversary of the King speech, Mr. Obama only alluded to race. But he quoted a famous phrase from Dr. King’s address to reinforce a central theme of his own speech. “America, we cannot turn back,” Mr. Obama said. “Not with so much work to be done.”

Wow. I must admit, hearing Obama’s speech gave me chills … and it had a strong significance for me. When Dr. King spoke of his Dream 45 years ago, it occurred to me that he was speaking of just this moment in time … when our country can finally realize that all men are created equal. I don’t know about y’all but I can deffo feel the winds of change blowin’ … and it’s about time. I remember when Governor Bill Clinton accepted his nomination for President of the United States back in 1992 … I could feel it then that he was going to win the presidency and put our country back on course. I got that same feelin’ this time, y’all … and it’s an amazing feeling … it’s called Hope.

After the jump, watch the entirety of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in case you missed it last night or want to hear it again …

READ THE REST OF THIS POST »