Barack Obama officially accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night, with a moving 50-minute address that was met with thunderous applause by an audience of 84,000 supporters and millions more at home.

The Senator's big night was something very few might have imagined decades ago, when Martin Luther King fought for civil rights. Obama was just 2 years old when King addressed a sea of people on the National Mall in Washington exactly 45 years earlier - on August 28, 1963.

It his address the Illinois Senator said that the Republican candidate John McCain was a brave and distinguished American, who was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years, but criticized him about his political ties with President George W. Bush.

"The record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time," Obama stated, adding that McCain didn't not understand the economic difficulties of the middle American.

"I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans," Obama said. "I just think he doesn't know."

Obama also answered Republican attacks on his readiness to be commander-in-chief, by saying: "We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe,"

"As commander-in-chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home," Obama promised.

The Senator also committed to end the war in Iraq, to "finish the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan" and to undertake "direct diplomacy" with Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Obama further noted the deep partisan divide in America and the loss of the American "sense of common purpose" that must be restored and promised to never question McCain's commitment to his country because "one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism."

Obama, however did not directly address the historic nature of his status as the first black major-party nominee for president. In his address, he referred only once to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. famous "I Have a Dream" speech delivered in 1963.

"It is that promise that 45 years ago today brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream," said Obama, but did not even mention King by name.

The newest daily Gallup poll shows that Obama's popularity is rising after the Convention.

In the mean time, President George W. Bush is scheduled to address the Republican National Convention on Monday, however Republican officials said Thursday that they are considering delaying the start of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly New Orleans, as a full-force hurricane early next week.

The threat is serious enough that White House officials are also debating whether President Bush should cancel his appearance on Monday, which is the first day of the convention.

As McCain's announcement of his pick for a Vice-President nears, speculations also mount that McCain will pick Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty for VP