Oregon Public Broadcasting

Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday in Denver in front of more than 70,000 people.

The speech, at the Invesco Field football stadium, could draw more people than the Illinois Senator's record-setting campaign speech in Portland's Waterfront Park.

To capitalize on that energy, the Obama campaign in Oregon says it has organized more than a dozen speech-watching parties around the state.

Locations include several bars, an elementary school in Grants Pass, a Chinese restaurant in Roseburg, and in the La Grande home of Micheline Helou.

Micheline Helou: “We're having finger food, wine. It's a small town mentality. We do this in homes, I don't think it's like a big city we don't go to restaurants. And I have a big house. The whole world is watching, literally the whole world is watching.”

Helou says after the speech, people at her house will talk about the campaign. And when the party is over, she'll talk about it with her family and friends around the world.

Some Obama supporters acknowledge that homes and businesses around Oregon could be switching their TVs between the big speech and the first OSU football game of the season.