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But it was Obama, a 42-year-old unfamiliar to most Americans, who seemed to really move the Democratic faithful and may have instantly established his credentials as a national political force. Obama, who is favored to become the Senate's only African-American member, used his speech to celebrate his improbable journey from being the son of a Kenyan-born father to becoming a rising Democratic star.

His parents gave him the African name of Barack, he said, because it means ''blessed.'' They believed ''that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.''

Obama issued a direct criticism of Bush's decision to invade Iraq, a subject that the party platform adopted Tuesday night avoids. ''When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going.''

Obama also brought the crowd leaping to its feet with a charge that the Bush administration has divided the country, ''the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America.''