Obama's path to Denver started with speech in Boston

DENVER — Barack Obama would not be preparing to deliver the speech of a lifetime tonight were it not for another one he gave four years ago, a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention that put him on the path to the presidential nomination.

Comparisons between the two moments, and the two speeches, have been inescapable in Denver. By any measure, July 27, 2004, was a remarkable day, even in a career filled with them.

Obama, then a rookie to national politics, sat for numerous television interviews the day of his speech and had to fight off reporters as he tried to use a portable toilet at Boston's FleetCenter, a foreshadowing of the media frenzy that has enveloped him ever since.

Even then, as a mere state senator running for U.S. Senate, Obama brimmed with self-confidence in his abilities, predicting before the speech that it would be a hit.

"I'm LeBron, baby," he told a Chicago Tribune reporter, referring to basketball star LeBron James. "I can play on this level. I got some game."

In the hours leading up to the 2004 speech, Obama was one of the convention's hottest celebrities, with reporters, photographers and fans chasing him around the convention center. He had to run at times, hurdling fences and television staging areas, to make a jampacked schedule of media interviews.

When he neared some portable toilets at one point, a media pack followed. "Can y'all just give me one moment to use the Port-O-Let?" Obama asked plaintively.

There were several firsts for Obama that warm summer day in Boston, where few outside the Illinois delegation were familiar with his strengths as a speaker and his unusual biography.

Obama, whose campaign staff had lobbied hard for the speaking slot, had never used a teleprompter, so he planned to carry a written copy of the 17-minute speech with him in case of technical snafus.

When the evening finally arrived, a last-minute decision was made that Obama's tie was not quite right for television. A light-blue one belonging to Robert Gibbs, his chief media aide, was appropriated.

The speech, of course, electrified the convention hall, bringing some to tears. In the seating area for the Illinois delegation along one side of the arena, the applause and foot-stomping were thunderous.

Many outside the arena could not see the speech live. The broadcast networks did not carry it, and the address could only be viewed on cable TV and on some stations in Illinois.

Obama later stopped by a Boston nightclub briefly to thank supporters and greet hundreds of supporters packed into the bar. It was a festive atmosphere that lasted into the early-morning hours the next day.

Rarely has a single speech launched a political career in such spectacular fashion. But four years later, Obama has traveled a lifetime, and tonight he steps onstage transformed.