Obama on Convention Speech: ’04 Was a Different Time

As Barack Obama prepares for his presidential nomination acceptance speech Thursday, he’s getting questions over how it will compare to his widely praised 2004 convention address.

In an interview that aired Friday, Obama was asked by CBS’s Harry Smith how he’ll top that speech.

“Well, you know, I think it’s a different time and a different place, obviously,” Obama said. “Four years ago, when I spoke, I was speaking as somebody who was in a supportive role to the nominee. Because I was new, I was presenting my version of the American story. This time I’m the nominee. So it’s a different — different role.”

Obama added that it’s not completely written, but that he has “a pretty good sense of what I’m going to say.”

“I suspect that that element of surprise that came about four years ago — nobody had heard of me and then I come up and I give a, you know, a speech that was well-received — I think that — there’s a special moment there that we’re not going to recapture,” he said. “At this point, people know that I can give a speech. And, you know, they’ll see me coming.”

Obama is scheduled to give the speech outdoors at Invesco Field in Denver on the final night of the Democratic convention.