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 Latest News : Top Story Government |
Obama: Dreams can be one Barack Obama has urged the United States to march ahead and restore the American dream as he accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic party. The Illinois senator made history by becoming the first African-American to be chosen to run for the White House by either the Democrats or the Republicans. His acceptance speech came 45 years to the day since Martin Luther King made his I Have a Dream speech. "Thank you so much, thank you everybody, thank you," he began after a rapturous welcome before 84,000 people in a packed open air sports stadium in Denver, Colorado. "It is with profound gratitude and great humility that I accept your nomination for presidency of the United States." Mr Obama's 45-minute speech saw him lay out an extremely ambitious programme of reform in Washington, including tax cuts for 95 per cent of working families and a pledge to end the country's foreign oil dependence by 2018. He attacked Republican candidate John McCain over his record in politics – which over the last eight years has seen him vote with George Bush 90 per cent of the time. "People of America: Enough! This moment, this election, is our chance to keep in the 21st century the American promise alive," Mr Obama said. "We love this country too much to let the next four years be just like the last eight. "On November 4th we must stand up and say, eight is enough!" The 47-year-old promised to undo what he saw as the economic mistakes of the Bush administration and reverse its disastrous foreign policy, with Mr Obama pledging to end the war in Iraq 'responsibly'. "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 continued. "It's time for [the Republican party] to own its failure – it's time for us to change America, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States." Mr Obama's ambitious policy pledges also saw him promise young Americans who worked for their communities a paid-for college education; affordable, accessible healthcare for all and an end to the gender pay gap. To pay for the reform he said an overhaul of the US' 20th century bureaucracy and an end to corporate loopholes and tax havens would be necessary. While Mr Obama focused on his personal motivation for entering politics, tangible policy issues and a dismissal of Mr McCain, he could not escape the history of the occasion. Martin Luther King III had earlier told the convention that his father "lives in the hopes and dreams, the competence and courage, the rightness and readiness of Barack Obama". Drawing his speech to a close, Mr Obama said people who heard Martin Luther King deliver his famous address realised that Americans' "destiny is inextricably linked". "As we walk we must make the pledge we must always march ahead; do not turn back. "America we cannot turn back, we cannot walk alone at this moment in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. "Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America." Mr Obama is currently neck and neck in the polls with Vietnam veteran Mr McCain, who will announce his running-mate on Friday. This week's Democratic convention has already seen Mr Obama receive the resolute backing of both Hillary and Bill Clinton, while Joe Biden was confirmed as the party's vice presidential candidate.  29 August 2008, 05:46 |
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