Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) hoisted barbs at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in his keynote speech on Tuesday night, telling the audience that “we need a president who understands the world today.”

“The race for the future is on,” Warner said. “It won’t be won with yesterday’s ideas and yesterday’s diversions. And it won’t be won with a president who is stuck in the past. We need a president who understands the world today.”

Warner focused on his humble Appalachian roots, telling the audience that “he was the first in his family to go to college” and describing how decades ago he first stumbled in the infant telecommunications business — an industry that ultimately made him very wealthy.

“Friends told me, ‘Warner, get a real job. No one’s going to want a cell phone in their car,’” said Warner, who is running for the Senate in the Old Dominion State this year. “But I saw a different future.”

Warner also linked McCain with President Bush and hammered the lawmaker for his stances on foreign policy, the environment and the economy.

“This administration failed to believe in what we can achieve as a nation when all of us work together,” Warner told the crowd. “John McCain promises more of the same — a plan that would explode the deficit that will be passed to our kids, no real strategy to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and he would continue spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.”