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A crowd of 84,000 roared and stomped their feet in approval as he delivered an apple-pie of a speech stuffed with appetising promises of policy changes yet sweetened with his trademark eloquence.
Delivered in an outdoor football stadium on Thursday, he served up the associations of baseball and soccer - the kind of everyday-American label that the country's first black candidate of a major party covets.
And he wasted no time hurling that pie at his Republican rival, addressing Senator John McCain by name time after time, moments after accepting the Democratic Party nomination.
To Americans, unhappy with the Iraq war, sobered by the tanking economy and insecure about their future, he pointed a finger at the Republican administration and asked them to give him a chance.
'The same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third,' he said. 'And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight.
'On Nov 4, we must stand up and say: 'Eight is enough'.'
The enthralled crowd, which included celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and rock star Stevie Wonder, as well as politicians, party delegates and ordinary people, eagerly picked up the refrain.
Mr Obama kept Mr McCain in his cross-hairs throughout, a sharp contrast to previous speeches.
The crowd cheered wildly as he attacked the No. 1 strength of Mr McCain's campaign - national security.
'You know, John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives,' he said.
Mr McCain had miscalculated by focusing on one war in Iraq when terrorism was a worldwide phenomenon, he added.
Mr Obama also stopped being defensive about his patriotism.
'I love this country, and so do you, and so does McCain.
'So I've got news for you, John McCain: We all put our country first,' he said, taking a dig at the Vietnam war hero's favourite line.
Mr Obama also hit back at efforts to portray him as a celebrity, talking about his less-than-privileged childhood and the ordinary people who had inspired him, from his grandmother to an unemployed factory worker he met on the campaign trail.
'I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine,' he said.
'These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on behalf of them that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.'
With chunky soundbites on his policies on education, health care, welfare and taxes, he laid out his domestic priorities in more detail than he had in past speeches.
On hot-button issues like abortion and gay rights, he underlined his own liberal stance while assuring the more conservative voters that there was room for different shades of opinion.
It was an olive branch of sorts to disaffected Republicans such as Mr Art Vaugh, a taxi-driver in Denver.
A lifelong Republican, he is uncomfortable with Mr McCain's veering towards the religious right. 'I'd like to give Obama a try,' he said.
The most important political speech of Mr Obama's career came at the close of the Democratic Party's four-day national convention.
The day also marked the 45th anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr's 'I have a dream' speech in which he laid out his vision for a future where the blacks and whites would live as equals.
Mr McCain paid tribute to Mr Obama and his accomplishment of becoming the first black candidate of a major political party.
'How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day,' Mr McCain said. 'Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, job well done.'
His spokesman Tucker Bounds wasted no time, however, criticising Mr Obama.
'When the fireworks end and the words are over, the fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be president.'
Mr Obama's 'inexperience' was nagging at former Clinton supporter Annie Berger, the wife of a senator from North Carolina.
'It's not something he can build up overnight, but I'm reassured by the fact that he has Joe Biden by his side.'
Mr Biden, a veteran senator tapped to be vice-president on the ticket, joined Mr Obama on stage as confetti rained down and fireworks lit up the sky.
Whether the bounce in polls is as spectacular, will be known soon as Republicans hunker down in St Paul, Minneapolis for their own national convention next week.
Mr McCain sprang a surprise of his own yesterday - his 72nd birthday - when he picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, only 44, to be his vice-presidential running mate.
