Obama's speech

My first effort at live-blogging. Let's see how well the typing skills hold up.

Probably half a million people in Grant Park. The guys selling loose joints are making a fortune.

Opening remarks about removing doubts about our founding principles--any doubters still out there?

Nod to the people standing in line all these hours/days.

"We are and always will be the United States of America."

Calls to an end to cynicism. However justified in the past, he's right...change has come to America.

McCain's name met with no boos. See how it's done, McCain supporters? This is how you're supposed to do it.

The girls are getting a new puppy. Cute.

Michelle Obama: First black first lady. Wonder how she feels about that.

Acknowledges David Plouff and David Axelrod. THEY DESERVE IT. He called it right: they put together the best campaign team in the history of politics.

He knows how far he's come in how short of a time. And he knows how many people ponied up their greenbacks to make it happen. "This is your victory."

Damn, this guy can talk.

Shades of MLK: "I know that we as a people will get there."

Good, he calls the partisan bickering "immaturity." And then invokes Lincoln as a contrast in the very next breath. Appealing to unity. Well done.

Gracious to his opponents. Speaks to the world. "A new dawn of American leadership is at hand."

"To those who would tear the world down, we will defeat you."

Story of a woman casting her ballot in Atlanta. Ann Nixon Cooper, age 106. A woman who's lived in three centuries, who once would have been denied the vote because of color and gender. Shows how far we've come as a country, and goes into his "Yes we can" theme marvelously.

I'm just enjoying the performance right now.

Thank providence...no gunshot. I was more than a little afraid of that.

Rest well, sir; you've earned it.