Throughout his speech, he drew a line between himself and McCain. "It's not that John McCain doesn't care, it's that John McCain doesn't get it.''
Enough of the politics of the past, he said, slapping McCain-Bush for dreamy, out-of-touch takes on the economic plight of average Americans, for aggressive, unproductive talk with partners around the world, for waging war in the wrong country.
From one of his early lines, "America, we are better than the last eight years,'' to the full specifics of his agenda on energy, education and tax policy, Obama delivered a masterful speech taking direct shots at his opponent:
“John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.”

The speech was full of specifics:
“So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
“Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
“Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

“I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.

“I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.

“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

“Washington has been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.

Democrats supposedly were clamoring for red meat. Obama served up a big platter of ground round.