In one of his campaign's most inspired moves to date, Barack Obama announced late this morning via his e-mail list that he will accept the nomination of the Democratic party—but not in the closed hall, before the delegates. Instead he'll take it to the streets of Denver, with an audience capacity of 75,000. Wow, the permits must have been a pain. But we can't underestimate the wisdom and political skill (and ambition!) of fun-loving Denver mayor (and former saloon-keeper) John Hickenlooper, who is totally awesome. An excerpt of the e-mail follows.

On Thursday, August 28th, he's scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.

Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.

It's going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches, but we've reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought us this far and who continue to drive this campaign.