DENVER: Barack Obama told Americans their "dreams can be one" if they unite in a stirring new crusade for change, in a riotous finale to the historic Democratic National Convention.

Obama accepted the party's presidential nomination before 75,000 delirious supporters, becoming the first-ever black major-party White House pick.

He tore into his Republican rival John McCain, saying he did not understand the struggles of normal Americans and should stop questioning his patriotism.

"It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it," Obama said.

As thousands of supporters waved tiny American flags after being whipped up into a patriotic frenzy by a pageant of patriotic songs, Obama trumpeted: "I've got news for you, John McCain, we all put our country first."

"America, we are better than these eight years," Obama said. "We are a better country than this," he said.

"We meet at one of those defining moments -- a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more."

"We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight," Obama said.

"The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans, have built, and we are to restore that legacy.

"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 vowed.