Responding sharply to McCain's charge that he cares more about winning an election than a war, the Democrat called that an example of the old politics that needs changing.
"I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain," said Obama, promising that he would not accuse McCain of taking policy positions for political purposes. "I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first."
On one of the most extraordinary closing nights in the annals of party conventions, Obama also tried to connect his life, and his candidacy, to the struggles of everyday Americans.
A Harvard law school graduate who earned millions as an author, he spoke of the struggles of his mother, who once had to go on food stamps to feed him and his sister, and had to fight with insurance companies when she lay dying with cancer.
He spoke of the economic struggles of ordinary families in paying their credit card bills, filling their gas tanks and affording college tuition. And he brought the crowd to its feet with a call for equal pay for women.
But one of his most important audiences was watching at home: the millions of undecided voters who will decide they election. Obama appealed to them from a singular setting, a politics-in-the-round spectacle modeled on John F. Kennedy's acceptance speech to a Los Angeles Coliseum crowd in 1960. Feeding the aura of a stadium rock concert were performances by Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, and hiphop artist Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.
Skeptics, including Democratic strategists outside the Obama orbit, worried that the atmosphere would turn off many of the swing voters their nominee needs to reach: older whites, especially those over 65, and working-class whites from old industrial areas weary of strangers promising change.
How well Obama did in meeting his goal - moving swing voters his way by easing their doubts about whether he is ready for the job - will be measured in opinion surveys over the next week to 10 days.
Even before he took the microphone, there were signs that he is benefiting from a traditional convention popularity "bounce." He moved out to a six-point lead over John McCain in the latest Gallup daily tracking pollys.
The setting for his acceptance speech melded two strains of Obama's candidacy - conventional politics and rock-star pyrotechnics.
