Obama shines as keynote speaker

BOSTON — Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat seeking to become the first black man elected to the Senate from his party, received superstar treatment from the press this week as the convention’s keynote speaker.

His speech last night gave little indication of Mr. Obama’s politics — which Illinois Republicans have called radical left wing — but in keeping with the night’s theme, he talked about a unified America, attempting to reach out to Republicans and independents and denouncing the idea of red and blue states.

“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America,” said Mr. Obama, a state senator who represents Chicago’s South Side.

On a night when Democrats highlighted blacks’ contributions to America, Mr. Obama’s speech followed the presentation of films about Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention in 1964.

Mr. Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, would make history for the Democratic Party if elected to the Senate from Illinois, the state where Carol Moseley Braun was elected as the Senate’s first black woman in 1992. Three black men have served in the Senate, but all were Republicans.

In his speech last night, Mr. Obama, a Christian who is the grandson of a Muslim, echoed some of the themes of personal responsibility sounded recently by entertainer Bill Cosby.

“Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn,” Mr. Obama said. “They know that parents have to teach, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.”

Ridiculing pollsters who “like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states; red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats,” Mr. Obama said: “But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states and have gay friends in the red states.”

Mr. Obama received several standing ovations, and delegates were slapping high-fives and praising Mr. Obama.

“That kid’s got it,” said one.

“He’s incredible,” said another.

Mr. Obama is uncontested in the race to replace retiring Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald, Illinois Republican, after Republican candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of the race.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have called Mr. Obama a “brilliant” candidate.

“What is so special and nice about him is he hasn’t seemed to need our help; he is cruising,” said D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

“He is absolutely brilliant … and this will open the door for other African-Americans to go to the Senate, and we need a voice there,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Mr. Obama’s Republican opposition is in disarray. Mr. Ryan’s candidacy collapsed in a divorce scandal and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka declined to run for the open seat.

“A lot can happen between now and Election Day,” said John Hoffman, executive director of the Illinois Republican Party. “The voters in Illinois are the ones who are going to decide our next U.S. senator, not East Coast elitists, left-coast liberals and the national media.”