As Barack Obama promised a clean break from the “broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush” in front of an estimated 84,000 people in Denver Thursday night, over 200 people gathered in Downtown Binghamton to support Obama’s bid to become the nation’s first black president.

“We need somebody that leads the people, that understands that we have to invest in people, not just war,” said City of Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan before speaking at the Obama Convention Watch Party, held at the Holiday Inn Arena on Hawley Street.

The event, co-sponsored by Citizen Action of New York and Binghamton University College Democrats, televised Obama’s acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee on a projector behind the hotel ballroom podium. Ryan, Citizen Action Community Organizer Lea Webb and BU College Democrats President Brian Young, among others, spoke to a contingency of all ages.

Young, a senior political science major, told Pipe Dream that the event and the BU community’s general show of support are unprecedented in his time at BU.

“There’s energy on campus with students,” he said. “We’ve been flyering, and students are just like, ‘there’s an Obama Event? We’re there’ … Students are rocking for Obama.”

Two BU sophomores, Daria Stein and Matthew Eng, were on hand for the start of the party, which kicked off around 8:30, an hour and a half before Obama was scheduled to take the stage at the Democratic National Convention.

“He’s a symbol of hope,” said Eng, a biology major. “He’s distanced himself a bit from Washington. He’s young, he’s a ray of light. He’s got this aura about him that’s very appealing.”

Voter registration forms were available for attendees. Young said BU College Democrats kicked off an initiative on Wednesday that aims to get 1,000 students registered to vote by the October deadline.

In Denver, Obama told the crowd packed into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium at the base of the Rocky Mountains, that “now is not the time for small plans.”

The 47-year-old Democratic Illinois senator vowed to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America’s dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. By contrast, he said, “John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time,” a scathing indictment of his Republican rival — on health care, education, the economy and more.

Polls indicate a close race between Obama and McCain, the Arizona senator who stands between him and a place in history. On a night 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream Speech,” Obama made no overt mention of his own race.

“I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree [of a presidential candidate]” was as close as he came to the long-smoldering issue that may well determine the outcome of the election.

Fireworks lit the night sky as Obama, his speech concluded, accepted the cheers of supporters. His wife, Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha joined him as the country music anthem “Only in America” filled the stadium. Vice presidential running mate Joseph Biden and his wife, Jill, joined them onstage.

Depicted by McCain as too young and inexperienced to sit in the Oval Office, Obama responded with an oblique reference to his rival’s temper.

“If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have,” he said.

According to Young, Binghamton’s College Democrats and College Republicans are planning a debate of their own as the election approaches.

— Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.