Obama's challenge

In his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president, Barack Obama had to negotiate a fine line. The throng in Denver's football stadium was eagerly awaiting the eloquence and idealism that propelled him to the pinnacle of national politics. At the same time, he had to counter the Republicans' caricature of those qualities as nothing more than the callow charisma of a political rock star. That meant giving content to the campaign theme of "Yes, we can." It meant moving beyond the crowd-pleasing anti-Republican slogan "Eight is enough!" to provide an outline of the policies a Democratic administration would pursue in the ensuing four years.

To a considerable extent, Obama accomplished that feat. Some of the proposals in the speech were familiar: a rewrite of the tax code to benefit working families and small businesses and to end breaks for "corporations that seek to ship our jobs overseas." Some were surprising: an energy policy that includes "ways to safely harness nuclear power." On foreign policy, Obama elaborated on his theme -- which also has been lampooned by Republicans -- of opening channels of communication even to hostile nations. In addition to a familiar pledge to collaborate with other nations to combat terrorism, disease and climate change, he promised to "renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."