U.S. Sen Ken Salazar waved his white Stetson to the Pepsi Center crowd Wednesday afternoon as he seconded the nomination of Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

Salazar harked back to his own family history in Colorado and New Mexico and that of Obama in Eldorado, Kan., in offering the first of the seconding speeches for the Illinois senator.

Striking his recurring theme of calling rural America “the forgotten America,” Salazar said that region “cannot afford four more years of George Bush policies.”

Over the two Bush presidential terms, “the America dream has been slipping away,” Salazar told the cheering delegates. “The White House has turned its back on you.”

Salazar, a first-term senator, followed on the heels of Dolores Huerta, who stressed the importance of the Hispanic vote in the 2008 election as she seconded the nomination of Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. Nominations were made for the roll call of the states, but when New York was called to vote, Clinton moved that nominations be closed and that Obama be declared the candidate by acclamation.

Obama was formally nominated by Mike Wilson, an Iraq war veteran and lifelong Republican from Tennessee.

Salazar stressed another recurring theme, welcoming delegates to “the West, where we’re building the new Democratic majority.”

His family history and that of Obama shows that anything is possible in the United States, Salazar said.

Salazar also called for health care for every American and better care for American veterans.

Salazar also helped declare Colorado’s votes, 55 for Obama and 15 for Clinton.

Obama is to accept the nomination Thursday at Invesco Field at Mile High.

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E-mail Gary Harmon at Gary.

Harmon@gjsentinel.com.