The senator from Illinois on Thursday night laid out his road map for improving the U.S. economy and heralding the country into an era of change.

"The change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington," he told supporters at Invesco Field at the Democratic National Convention. "Change happens because the American people demand it -- because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time."

iReporters across the country watched Obama's speech on television, and many said his address won their vote.

"As of August 28, 2008, I am officially voting for Barack Obama," Melody Munroe of Norfolk, Virginia, wrote on iReport.com.

Munroe described herself as "a very harsh critic of Obama's." She voted for a Republican candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, during the presidential primaries, saying she never considered supporting Obama in the election.

"After I got past all the rumors about him ... I was finally able to really look into the man he really is," she said.

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Munroe said many of the speeches during the first three nights of the Democratic convention left her unimpressed, but she said Obama's address inspired her.

"I was moved," Munroe said. "For the first time I actually felt like there was some hope at the end of the tunnel."

As a military spouse, Munroe said she was impressed with Obama's plans for improving health care for veterans.

"I was tired of just taking what the Republican Party kept saying at face value," she said. "Obama is our only hope for change."

Janie Lambert of Knoxville, Tennessee, who had backed Obama's former Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, said, "He won me over."

She added, "It was very emotional. I never thought I would feel this way after hearing him speak."

Lambert, who voted for President Bush in 2000 and 2004, said she votes for the candidate she feels is the best choice, not based on the political party.

Thursday's speech convinced her to vote for Obama, she said. "I have at long last decided to support this man for president," she said.

Keith Cooper of Tampa, Florida, voted for Clinton in the primaries, pointing to her experience in the Senate and as first lady.

Cooper, a longtime Democrat, said Obama's address moved him "to tears of joy."

He described the speech as a "powerful, inspirational and informative discourse of hope."

Cooper also said he was happy with Obama's choice of Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. He said that Biden, who's been in the Senate more than 30 years, will have "experience, filling in places where Barack is learning."

Obama offers "fresh ideas, his ability to unite the parties and his charisma," Cooper said.

Mary Kopczknski joined a crowd Thursday night in New York's Times Square to watch Obama's speech. A former supporter of Clinton's, Kopczynski said she had considered voting for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in the general election.

Kopcynski said she was looking for Obama to lay out specific plans during his acceptance speech.

"Ironically, what I found most impressive was the loftiness of his speech," she said. "It really sealed the deal that we do need to have change right now and that he is the better person than John McCain."

Like Kopcynski, former Clinton supporter Vincent Yau of Knoxville, Tennessee, said he was hoping for substance in Obama's speech.

Yau said he was impressed by Obama's energy plans. During the speech, Obama laid out a specific promise to invest $150 billion over a decade in "affordable, renewable sources of energy."

"I would liken the 10-year term to what John Kennedy said when he wanted to put a man on the moon," Yau said.

iReporter Caroline, who declined to give her last name, said she worried that Obama on Thursday night "wasn't going to be able to top himself."

Caroline, a staunch Clinton supporter, posted glowing reviews of the former first lady's convention speech Tuesday and former President Clinton's speech the following night to iReport.com.

"I didn't think [Obama] could top Hillary or Bill or even himself for that matter," she wrote. "But he did."