Obama to Accept Nomination, Outline New Direction for the U.S.

McCain Campaign Attacks Symbolism of Stadium Address

DENVER, Aug. 28 -- A day after Democrats officially named him as their presidential candidate, Barack Obama goes before a stadium crowd Thursday night to formally accept the nomination and lay out a plan to lead the nation in a new direction at home and abroad.

Obama, 47, a first-term senator from Illinois, is scheduled to address as many as 80,000 people in Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High football stadium and millions of television viewers starting at about 8 p.m. Mountain time (10 p.m. EST).

In the speech, which caps the four-day Democratic National Convention and opens Obama's campaign for the White House as his party's nominee, Obama will offer "a fundamentally new direction to get America back on track, both here and around the world," said David Plouffe, his campaign manager. Appearing on morning television talk shows, Plouffe said Obama would explain his plans for dealing with the economy, health care and education, as well as international challenges such as threats to the United States and strained relations with other countries.

Supporters of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who is scheduled to be formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate next week in Minneapolis, derided the setting for Obama's speech -- a stage with a backdrop of white columns inside a huge football and entertainment venue -- mocking it as the "Temple of Obama" and charging that it symbolizes style over substance.

"This is really about celebrity and not much substance," said Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota, on ABC's "Good Morning America" program Thursday. "This Roman-like facade, or facade with Roman columns, is a perfect metaphor or icon for the point that it's an interesting production, but behind it there's not much there. . . . It's almost like he wants to come out and be . . . emperor-like in the setting, at least the facade."

Plouffe, interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, called the Republican criticism "ridiculous." While the Democrats are opening up their convention to the American people, he said, "John McCain will be surrounded next week in Minneapolis with the lobbyists that run his campaign." He dismissed a suggestion that the setting was meant to evoke the historic "I Have a Dream" speech that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered 45 years ago to the day in front of the Greek columns of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Plouffe noted that President Bush "used a similar set four years ago" at the Republican National Convention and said Obama would deliver his acceptance speech Thursday night in "the most American setting imaginable."

The senator from Illinois completed an improbable and historic journey here Wednesday when he was nominated by acclamation, becoming the first African American presidential candidate of a major political party in U.S. history.

Obama, who just eight years ago attended his first Democratic National Convention and who four years later shot to national prominence with an electrifying keynote address at the gathering in Boston, was given a final symbolic boost Wednesday by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who moved from the convention floor to suspend the roll call of the states and formalize her former rival's nomination by acclamation.

The gesture of conciliation brought to a conclusion the closest and hardest-fought nomination battle Democrats have waged in the modern era of presidential politics, pitting two historic candidacies in a contest that divided the party and left lingering bitter feelings among Clinton loyalists.

But after days of nervous speculation about how the long and often contentious competition would end here in Denver, the nomination-by-acclamation set off a joyous scene on the convention floor, as delegates danced to the strains of "Love Train" and then broke out in chants of "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!"

Hours later, the convention confirmed Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) as the party's vice presidential nominee, and as he finished his acceptance speech, Obama made a surprise visit to the Pepsi Center to praise his running mate; his wife, Michelle; his erstwhile rival Clinton; and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who had delivered a powerful speech on behalf of Obama earlier in the night.

"I think the convention's gone pretty well so far, don't you think?" Obama said. He cited his wife's speech on Monday, and then, referring to Hillary Clinton's speech on Tuesday, said, "If I'm not mistaken, Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night."