Barack Obama, who four years ago was a virtual political unknown, Thursday ventured where no black American has gone before: into a presidential election as the candidate of a major party.
Obama's coronation at the Democratic convention here was to culminate with an acceptance speech Thursday in Denver's 75,000-seat Invesco Field sports stadium, testament to his reputation as an electrifying speaker.
Obama's victory over former first lady Hillary Clinton in a bruising primary campaign full of bitter invective turned political convention on its head.
The 47-year-old senator from Chicago did it by allying his dazzling oratory to a fearsome grassroots organization that, against all odds, defeated the Democratic royalty of the Clinton family in delegates and fundraising.
Obama has ignited US politics with his promise of reconciliation, betting that a nation hungry for change will overlook his relative inexperience after eight years of rancor under President George W. Bush.
But after seeing off the vaunted Clinton machine, the Democrat will have to find still greater steel to overcome Senator John McCain and the no-holds-barred politics of the Republican Party in November's election.
And Obama's defeats by Clinton in rust-belt states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia appear to indicate he has yet to connect with large numbers of working-class, white voters.
The whispered question is whether that was down to racism, or down to voters' preference for the more down-to-earth image of Clinton compared to what she and the Republicans have claimed is Obama's "elitism."
He did not help his cause by saying blue-collar voters cling to guns and religion -- two electric issues in US politics that candidates highlight at their peril -- because they are "bitter" about their fate.
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