For Biden's part, he vindicated Obama's selection, proving his ability to both appeal to working-class, blue collar Democrats as well as attack the McCain campaign.
Pointing to Obama's opposition to the Iraq War as a 'dumb war' from the start, Biden said Obama was right about Iraq, while McCain, one of the war's most vocal supporters, was wrong.
Biden praised McCain for his decorated military record, but used the point to launch into a discussion of leadership. "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change. The change that everybody knows we need."
Biden, who was critical of Obama during the primary process, when the two were competing, said that he learned a lot about Obama's character in those early stages. He "realised Obama has tapped into the oldest American belief of all: We don't have to accept a situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it."
Earlier in the day, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, from California, presided over the official nomination process. The Obama and Clinton camps had ironed out a plan to present a unified front by having a roll call of the states and their delegates. Though much had been made of the roll call, its outcome when was never in doubt, only its exact mechanics.
Pelosi, who kicked off the Convention with a speech Monday night, then rapped her gavel, officially confirming Obama as the Democrats nominee in the Novemeber General Election, the first time a black man will represent a major US political party in the Presidential Race.
"No matter where we stood at the beginning of this campaign, Democrats stand together today," declared Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former Clinton supporter who delivered a nominating speech for Obama. "We believe passionately in Barack Obama's message of changing the direction of our country."
Image: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, at the convention.
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