Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday with a scathing assessment of John McCain and a blunt indictment of the Bush administration, promising to repair “the broken politics of Washington” and preside over a more prosperous and equitable America.

Speaking to a rapturous audience of more than 84,000 packed into a football stadium, Obama delivered a 44-minute address that was more sharply worded than his usual lyrical prose. He blasted President Bush with some of the harshest language of the campaign, painting a grim picture of economic hardship: rising unemployment, falling wages, plunging home values, and rising costs for gasoline and college tuition.

“America, we are better than these last eight years,” Obama said, speaking from an elaborate stage on the floor of the Denver Broncos football stadium. “We are a better country than this.” Fending off Republican attacks on his judgment, experience and ability to understand middle America, Obama insisted it was Arizona Sen. McCain, his GOP rival, who “doesn’t get it.”

“For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy: Give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else,” Obama said. “In Washington, they call this the ‘ownership society,’ but what it really means is ‘You’re on your own.’

“Well, it’s time for them to own their failure,” Obama went on, as the stadium erupted in cheers. “It’s time for us to change America.”

In closing out the Democratic convention, the Illinois senator seemed to address any doubts about his readiness for what promises to be a brutal fall campaign. He also sought to answer critics who say that his rhetoric, while perhaps captivating, is often vacant; that his message of hope and change, while inspiring, is platitudinous.

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