Obama lands on Frosted Flakes box

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 'bounce'' is gone.

So says a new CNN/Opinion Research poll released just now.

With a survey of voters taken Friday through today, the results show that 49 percent said they support the Democratic presidential ticket Barack Obama and Joe Biden and 48 percent support the Republican team of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Maybe it was Palin?

Maybe, maybe not - the favorable rating on McCain's running-mate pick is running at 52 percent. The voters surveyed were asked to rate McCain's choice of Palin, announced on Friday after Obama's convention ended. Only 27 percent called it excellent and 25 percent called it good - that's a 52-percent positive. But 21 percent called it a fair pick and 25 percent called it a poor pick - a 46 percent negative.

Or maybe it's just a question of a different poll - CNN and Opinion Research also had portrayed a dead-heat between Obama and McCain heading into the Democratic convention early last week - a dead-even 47-47 in their survey of Aug. 23-24.

But the Gallup daily tracking poll found an eight-point advantage for Obama at the end of his convention, and today reported a six-point advantage - which includes the three-day average of surveys taken through Saturday. Gallup, which also had Obama and McCain tied heading into Denver, suggested that Obama had gotten an 8-point bounce.

Today, CNN/Opinion Research found another dead heat.

So much for bounce.

The equation doesn't change with the minor candidates in the picture either. Asked if the ballot included Obama, McCain, Libertarian Bob Barr, independent Ralph Nader and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, 46 percent said they'd favor Obama, 44 percent McCain, 4 percent Nader, 2 percent Barr, 1 Kinney.

The potential margin of error in the survey is plus or minus 3 percent.

by James Oliphant

BATTLE CREEK, Mich--Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" is blaring. The evening has cooled off. The sun is low. It is a picture-perfect postcard of the end of the summer in America. You can almost taste the ice cream.

Seventeen thousand people have jammed the baseball field here--and Obama has finally arrived.

Where's he been? Here is the report from Noam Levey, who writes for our sister paper, The Los Angeles Times.

Bottom line: Obama seems to have a new slogan: "Win or lose, we still booze."

Obama and Biden pulled into tiny Hamilton, Indiana at 5:40 p.m. after a long trip along narrow roads winding through the corn and soybean fields
of Northeastern Indiana.

The destination was Pier 32, a lakeside restaurant and bar with faux brick walls inside that advertises itself as "North of the Keys, South of the Pole."

As ski-jetters zoomed by under the late afternoon sun, Obama made his way inside and waded into the waiting crowd of sun burnt party-goers, shaking hands, posing for photos and kissing babies.

Julia Miller, who was celebrating her 75th birthday with family, also got a kiss. "It's so exciting," Miller said after Obama had moved on. ""I'm just an old country girl." She said Obama had her vote.

Kermit Dietsch, who used to own a furniture store, was talking to his son on his cell phone when Obama walked into the bar.

Dietsch's son, a big Obama fan, had missed the candidate's visit to the city earlier in the day. But as Obama passed, he took Dietsch's phone and chatted for several minutes.

"He wanted to talk to him so bad," said an obviously star-struck Dietsch.

Obama then joined Joe Biden, who had made directly for the bar when the two candidates arrived, at a table celebrating another birthday.

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, MIinn. - Now you know the story's moving.

Katie Couric is leaving town.

And Charles Gibson. Brian Williams, too.

Anderson Cooper, he of "360:'' Making a 180 for New Orleans.

FOX's Shep Smith? Heading South.

With a curtailed Republican National Convention, reduced to nothing but procedural business on its opening day here Monday, and a vicious Hurricane Gustav enveloping the Gulf of Mexico and threatening the Crescent City, the anchors of the network news programs are pulling up sets and heading South.

"Whether they will be heading north at all depends on the strength of the storm at Monday's expected landfall,'' the Associated Press' TV writer, David Bauder, writes.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney both have called off trips to St. Paul, with the president traveling to Texas early in the morning to see relief-staging efforts and then returning to the White House Monday night to monitor events.

But the anchors?

"We're going to go with the biggest story of the day tomorrow," says Jay Wallace, a news vice president at FOX News Channel, "and right now the biggest story of the day is the storm."

by James Oliphant

TOLEDO, Ohio--Political observers said adding Joe Biden to the Democratic ticket for president would do a lot of things for Barack Obama: provide him with a better connection to middle-class voters, shore up his foreign policy profile, perhaps give him a shot at winning a battleground state.

Add something else: Biden has taken the oh-so-serious, scripted Obama campaign into the realm of improvisational theatre

Take Sunday at a small-scale event in here in Toledo. Biden was doing his job, laying out the case for Obama, when he simply couldn't resist the urge to riff.

"There's a gigantic -- gigantic -- difference between John McCain and Barack Obama, and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent . . . Well there's obvious differences," he paused. "She's good-looking,"

The crowd laughed, and one woman shouted that Biden was "gorgeous."
.
"Where's that person?" Biden asked. "Who said that? Who said that? Would you say that again for my wife?"

Obama, by contrast, has called Gov. Sarah Palin "compelling" and "dynamic." He's never mentioned the former Alaska beauty queen's appearance.

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - It seems Michael Moore, the radical filmmaker, isn't the only one who sees God's hand in Gustav.

Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, suggested that the hurricane's predicted landfall on the day the Republican National Convention opens "just demonstrates that God is on our side.''

But unlike Moore, who said in an MSNBC interview that Gustav proves "there is a God,'' Fowler has apologized.

During a flight from his party's convention in Denver to South Carolina on Friday, Fowler, who served as DNC chairman in 1995 and 1996, was recorded telling a fellow passenger that it appears Gustav will make landfall on Monday.

"That just demonstrates that God is on our side," Fowler added, according to a video posted on YouTube under the headline: "Fowler Fouls: Hurricane is God's Favor To Democrats."

The recording artist was not identified in the video, but was named on the conservative Web site, www.redstate.com, as Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C.

Today, Fowler told The Associated Press that he had been making fun of comments made by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said the attacks were God's punishment for abortion, homosexuality and other sins.

"This is a point of national concern. I think everybody of good will has great empathy and sympathy for people in New Orleans," Fowler said. "Most religious people are praying for people in New Orleans. There is no political connotation to this whatsoever. This was just poking fun at Jerry Falwell and the nonsensical thing he had said several years ago."

If anyone was offended, he said, he apologized.

"I don't believe in a God that's vengeful,'' the South Carolinian said. "I believe in a God that's compassionate.''

South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson called Fowler's comments "disappointing and despicable."

"A storm is not a partisan event and that is what they've done. I am outraged," Dawson said from St. Paul, where the Republican National Convention is scheduled to opent Monday, but has been dramatically curtailed because of Gustav.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

by James Oliphant

BATTLE CREEK, Mich.--Barack Obama is expected to arrive at here at Bailey Park, home of the Bombers, here shortly.

And he probably can't get here soon enough for many of the attendees for this evening's rally, who have been baking in the hot sun in the outfield, some since 2 this afternoon.

Appeals to a higher power have gone out. A gospel choir is currently performing.

It's really warm.

(Our comment boards are currently broken so please send your comments by e-mail to theswamp@tribune.com and we'll get them up as soon as possible.)

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - After more than eight years of campaigning for the presidency, Sen. John McCain surely must be frustrated by the fact that his long-awaited nominating convention could be taking back seat to an impending natural disaster.

"Yeah. I guess in some ways,'' McCain says in an interview airing this evening on NBC Nightly News with Brian Willams. "But the fact is, you know, I just returned from a briefing down in Jackson, Miss. The president was on along with... Mr. Paulison, the director of FEMA and (Homeland Security) Secretary Chertoff and, but this, this is an overwhelming thing.

"And let's hope and pray that it's not gonna be so severe, as (Mississippi) Gov. Barbour said, we're-- praying for the best and preparing for the worst. But look, this is just one of those moments in history where you have to put America first.

The opening day of the convention, which was to feature President Bush and Vice President Cheney, has been curtailed to nothing but a couple of hours of procedural business. Bush, after a tour of staging areas in Texas on Monday, plans to return to the White House Monday evening and monitor events from there. "They are taking it day by day,'' a White House spokesman says.

As for McCain, he too is taking this convention day by day, according to his campaign manager, Rick Davis. And the party is pivoting from its "Country First'' celebration of its presidential nominee to a nation call for community service.

"I know Republicans and Democrats will respond accordingly with generosity, with assistance and with volunteering everything they have to make sure that this blow is softened as much as possible,'' McCain tells NBC's Brian Williams in the interview airing on the evening news. "Just one of those things.''

by Frank James

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Democratic National Committee is suspending its counter-programming efforts in St, Paul in response to the Republican National Committee's decision to significantly scale back the GOP convention on Monday and to take the rest of the week's schedule day by day because of the Hurricane Gustav.

Here's the DNC's press release.

DNC Response to Revised Republican Convention Plans

St. Paul, MN - In light of the situation in the Gulf Coast, the Democratic National Committee announced that is has canceled its daily media briefing at the More of the Same Media Center on Monday, September 1. Additional scheduling updates will be provided when available.

(Our comment boards are broken so please send any comments by e-mail to theswamp@tribune.com and we'll get them up as soon as we can.)

by Frank James

BLOOMINGTON, MN -- Sen. John McCain tore up the Republican National Convention schedule today in response to Hurricane Gustav which is churning through the Gulf of Mexico ahd drawing a bead on New Orleans.

With concerns rising about the potential devastation the storm could produce and with the shadow of the Bush Administration's poor response to Hurricane Katrina still hanging over Republicans, McCain decided to abbreviate the convention's schedule.

Instead of the full schedule the convention's Republican planners had hoped for, the delegates will meet for at most 2-1/2 hours tomorrow to conduct essential business only. For instance, they must adopt rules, elect officers and adopt the party platform before they can nominate the party's presidential and vice presidential nominees.

There will be no evening session. Party and McCain campaign officials will decide each day precisely how much of the convention can proceed as they watch to see how the hurricane and its aftermath unfolds.

"I want to thank all of my fellow Republicans as we take off our Republican hats and put on American hats," said McCain who spoke to Republicans at the Xcel Center by live satellite video feed. "And we say America, we're with you... The time for action is now."

Republican officials also said that the convention would quickly pivot, transforming from what was supposed to a celebration of the Republican party and its soon-to-be presidential and vice presidential nominees, McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, respectively, to a fundraiser for hurricane-related charities.

(Our comment boards are currently broken so please send any comments by e-mail to theswamp@tribune.com and we'll get them up as soon as we can.)

Barack Obama and Joe Biden particpate in an economic "town hall meeting" in Toledo. (Photo by J. Oliphant)

by James Oliphant

TOLEDO, Ohio--Standing atop a downtown building in a city that represents the decline of America's industrial economy, Barack Obama continued Sunday to pound away on economic issues, sketching in broad strokes a plan he said would create jobs and enhance American competitiveness.

Speaking at a small-scale event at the city's public library, Obama engaged in a give-and-take with a select crowd of invitees. One theme that quickly emerged was the United States' ability to compete with rising global powerhouses China and India.

The Democratic presidential candidate linked global competition to improving American education.

"We're going to make sure every child in America has a world-class education," Obama said. "We can't compete against China and India when they're producing more engineers than we are."

He also spoke of the need to increase investment in basic research. Obama was joined in Toledo by his vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden, who added that the refusal to invest in infrastructure such as roads, bridges and ports, had damaged the ability of American companies to deliver goods and services.

It may seem a stretch to connect competing with China to better parenting, but Obama made the leap. He repeated his assertion that improving education alone won't be effective unless parents take a more active role in the lives of their children.

"You walk into the classrooms in China, all those kids are paying attention," Obama said. "If parents don't parent and turn off the TV set and instill in their child a thirst for knowledge, we will not succeed."

He also called for increased enforcement of international trade agreements, saying that China needed to be prevented from stealing the U.S.' intellectual property.

Obama also took what probably was his first public swipe at GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, saying that she didn't believe in equal pay for women, and suggesting a new line of attack in an effort to prevent the McCain camp from drawing Hillary Clinton supporters.

by Mark Silva

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Cindy McCain, wife of the Republican Party's presidential candidate, is a lot younger than Sen. John McCain - 18 years younger. But she still is a lot older than McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin - 10 years older.

McCain is disputing Democratic criticism that the senator has chosen a woefully inexperienced running mate in the first-term Alaska governor and former major of Wasilla: "I completely disagree,'' the candidate's wife said in an appearance this morning on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, "and I know my husband does, too. She is heavily experienced in what she has done.

"You know, she -- the experience that she comes from is with what she's done in the government,'' McCain added, with a certain geography lesson meant to underscore Palin's national security bearings: "Also, remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. So it's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here.

'She started out like everybody else -- a member of the PTA, small government at home, then a mayor, now the governor,'' she said. "She comes with the kind of experience behind her. And also, I might add,'' said this mother whose own son has served in Iraq: "a son who is about to deploy to Iraq.''

She also rejects the notion, voiced by Democratic rival Barack Obama, that her husband is out of touch with common Americans, what with the seven or eight homes the McCains own: "I'm offended by Barack Obama saying that about my husband.''

On the family fortune which the Democrats like to talk about, she said her father had lived "the American Dream,'' making a fortune as a beer distributor in Phoenix and making her his heir. And as for her husband, she said: "My husband was a Navy boy. His father and mother were in the Navy. I mean, there's nothing elitist about that.''

In a special edition of the broadcast from the Xcel Energy Center, where a Hurricane Gustav-altered Republican National Convention is about to open, McCain spoke at length about the campaign and her husband. Here, courtesy of ABC News, is a transcript:

by Mark Silva

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- We're reliably told here that the book, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear, is a well-illustrated account of Sarah Palin's remarkable career.

Palin, who studied journalism at the University of Idaho, also apparently had a pretty good sense of humor as an undergrad - as the illustration from the book above shows.

A source has relayed to the Swamp the published portrait of the governor, and now vice presidential candidate, as a dorm-dweller, displaying the T-shirt: "I may be broke, but I am not flat busted.''

And John McCain says he was the "original maverick''.

Photos from the book courtesy of the Associated Press, including this undated picture of Palin with her husband's 'Stang:

by Mark Silva

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - President Bush, who plans to travel to San Antonio tomorrow to oversee hurricane preparations, said today that the people of New Orleans should prepare for serious flooding and heed orders to evacuate the area.

But Bush, maintaining he does not want to get in the way of relief efforts, will not travel to Louisiana until conditions permit.

"This storm is dangerous. There is a real possibility of flooding,'' Bush said today in a shirt-sleeved appearance at the Washington headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where he received a briefing about the Category Three hurricane, Gustav, which threatens New Orleans as an even stronger storm.

Standing beneath the fluorescent lighting of the urgent FEMA command center, the president, who has scrapped plans to appear this week at his party's presidential nominating convention in Minnesota, declared: "We will face this emergency together.''

This is a starkly different tableaux than the one Americans saw three years ago, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. The president, who had been on vacation at his Texas ranch, was returning from an appearance in California when he made a low flight over New Orleans in Air Force One to observe the scene from on high. He did not travel to the area until days later, and stood in a darkened New Orleans square floodlighted with stage lighting two weeks alterward with a televised address to the nation.

"I will not be going to Minnesota for the Republican National Convention,'' said Bush, who instead will travel to Texas on Monday to coordinate government efforts. He will travel to San Antonio, where state and federal officials are pre-positioning relief material.

"I will not be traveling to Louisiana tomorrow,'' Bush said, "because I do not want my visit to impede in any way with the response of emergency personnel.... I hope to be able to get to Louisiana as soon as conditions permit.''

A lot of work is underway in preparation for the storm, the president said, asserting that local, state and federal leaders "have taken the storm very seriously and are working very proactively.''

Officials have pre-positioned teams of doctors and nurses and millions of meals and millions of liters of water, he said. And authorities as far away as New Mexico are opening shelters for evacuees. The Army Corps of Engineers has advised him that "while the levees are stronger than they ever have been... people need to understand that with a storm like this'' flooding is possible.

by Frank James

We've gotten a few comments in by e-mail to theswamp@tribune.com, which I'm posting. (As I reported earlier, we have a technical glitch which has knocked out our comments boards. The people responsible for fixing it haven't been able to do so.) When you send in comments, please let me know which posting I should attach it to. Otherwise, I'll just throw them into a catch-call posting like this.

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David L: What were you thinking, disabling comments at the height of the comment season??????

Then being so inept as to not know how to undo the damage?

Huffington Post, you're not.

Sun 8/31/2008 12:28 PM

(Frank James: Let me answer you, David. We had huge traffic on Wednesday-Thursday because a posting on the Obama campaign's spat with with WGN radio was linked to the Drudge Report. Our site was so overloaded, it actually became inaccessible to many, including us. Our technical people took down the comment boards to ease the strain. Then when they went to restart the comment boards, nothing happened. They have been working the problem the whole weekend but nothing has worked. Believe me, Mark Silva, I and the rest of The Swamp's team are very upset. But we're not going to let that stop us. So if you work with us, we'll make the best of a bad situation. You're right, we aren't Huff Po. They've had a lot more money invested in them than we have. But we a scrappy bunch and we're not going to let this get us down. And our tech people tell me that we're going to be adding some server capacity that will prevent this from happening in the future. Can't happen soon enough.)
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Remember the evangelical preacher who was going to pray for rain for last Thursday in Denver so it would literally rain on Obama parade? Well, it didn't, but it does look like Hurricane Gustave may wash out a large part of the Republican convention even though it is a thousand miles away. Hmm? Is God sending a message? Julie M

Sun 8/31/2008 12:17 PM

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ITS BAD ENOUGH YOU BACKED OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT, PLEASE DON'T LET HIS CAMPAIGN LOW LIFE STOP OUR FREE SPEECH ON "THE SWAMP'.
BECAUSE IT WILL BE BAD ENOUGH IF HE IS ELECTED PRESIDENT-

REMEMBER "CHANGE" MEANS THE END OF FREE SPEECH IN AMERICA

THANKS

A FORMER READER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE-

Sun 8/31/2008 12:09 PM

by James Oliphant

TOLEDO, Ohio--Barack Obama Sunday refused to criticize opponent John McCain for taking a campaign trip to Mississippi even as residents of the Gulf Coast flee the approaching Hurricane Gustav.

Outside a Lutheran church in Lima, Ohio, where Obama attended services, he said, "A big storm like this raises bipartisan concerns and I think for John to want to find out what's going on is fine."

McCain is making the trip to Jackson, Miss. at the invitation of Gov. Haley Barbour.

Saturday evening, however, Obama had ruled out making a similar trip because he didn't want to interfere with evacuation efforts.

"The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we're drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the secret service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job," Obama said Sunday.

"I'm assuming that where he went that wasn't an issue. We're going to try to stay clear of the area until things have settled down and then we'll probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible."

To that end, Obama said his campaign would use its massive email fundraising apparatus to recruit volunteers or send donations once the impact of the storm is evident.

by Frank James

The Homeland Security Department is giving us a sense of Secretary Michael Chertoff's itinerary today. Suffice it to say that he is going to be showing the DHS flag a lot in Louisiana in the next few hours.

He'll be making at least three stops, in Houma, New Orleans and Baton Rouge to look at Hurricane Gustav preparations.

Compare this to what he did three years ago before Hurricane Katrina. The closest he got to New Orleans before that storm was Atlanta.

Then FEMA director Michael "Brownie" Brown also faulted Chertoff after the fact for ordering him to stay in Baton Rouge instead of letting him go into New Orleans to see first-hand the destruction.

Obviously, Chertoff isn't making the same mistake twice. He's going beforehand to the city directly in the path of imminent storm. Here's a press release from the Homeland Security Department.

STATEMENT BY HOMELAND SECURITY PRESS SECRETARY LAURA KEEHNER

We continue to remind Gulf Coast residents about the importance of taking precautionary measures to prepare for an emergency situation or evacuation as Gustav approaches our shores. The department's Ready Campaign encourages citizens to get an emergency supply kit, make an emergency plan, and stay informed of instructions from local authorities. Please visit www.ready.gov for resources and information on personal and business emergency preparedness.

(Our comment boards are currently broken so please send any comments by e-mail to theswamp@tribune.com and we'll get them up as soon as we can.)

by Mark Silva

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hasn't raised a lot of money in her political career, it turns out, but both fishing and the Republican Party have been good to her.

Sen. John McCain's running mate has raised $1.43 million from 2001 to 2006, Dan Morain tells us at Top of the Ticket - less than what a race for a state Assembly seat might cost. The LA Times has found that she raised most of that -- $1.36 million -- in 2005 and 2006, when she was running for governor. She hasn't raised any money since taking office in December 2006 because her state's laws don't permit any trolling until next May.

Her single greatest source of support: The Republican Party, with $75,000. People involved in the fishing industry have donated at least $70,000. The governor's husband is a commercial fisherman.

People listing their business as real estate have donated $46,000, attorneys at least $30,000, and lobbyists $9,800.

Palin, who supports opening a part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development (a move, remind you, which McCain opposes, while he pushes for off-shore drilling), has collected about $13,500 from people involved with oil firms.

by Frank James

Still no fix to our technical problem when it comes to being able to receive and post comments.

But we're not going to let us stop us. So here's our workaround. We have an e-mail address you can send comments to.

It is: theswamp@tribune.com. Once again: theswamp@tribune.com.

Send your comments there. We will add them to the end of the relevant posts. We won't be able to post all of them, especially the more frivolous ones. But we will do our best to post as many as we can, given it's a more laborious process to do it this way.

But we're Americans, damn it, and we're not going to let this glitch stop us. So send those comments to theswamp@tribune.com.

by Mark Silva and updated twice

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Scratch two from the lineup of speakers at the increasingly uncertain Republican National Convention because of the onslaught of Hurricane Gustav:

President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

"Due to Hurricane Gustav, President Bush is unlikely to travel to Minnesota for the convention,'' White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told the Tribune this morning. "The White House is working on alternate plans, and we'll provide more information as we have it." Press Secretary Dana Perino added later in word to the White House pool that Bush will not appear at the convention.

The vice president "will not attend'' the convention, spokeswoman Megan Mitchell says. Cheney will remain in Washington with the president.

But First Lady Laura Bush still plans to attend, Perino said.

The president and vice president were slated to speak on opening night of the convention Monday.

The president spoke with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and let him know he was "getting ready to go through this with him,'' Perino added this morning. Nagin said the forecast didn't look good but he was pleased with the coordination of FEMA and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Perino said.

Equpment for the emergency is at an "unprecedented'' level, Nagin told Bush and the police are "strong.'' Nagin issued his own public warning from the podium today: Any looters caught taking advantage of the evacuation or emergency will go straigjht to Angola -- by which he means "the big house'' prison in Louisiana -- not the city jail.

Nagin reported that people appear to be heeding the order for evacuation and that the elderly are being looked after, Perino reported.

For Bush, the threat of another hurricane on the Gulf Coast three years after Katrina devastated the coast and New Orleans is too serious a situation to be taking part in a party celebration. He already has delcared states of disasters in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas to enable authorities to draw money for evacuation and preparation.

The president had been returning to Washington from vacation at his Texas ranch when Katrina struck. He had made a flight to California to speak there, and made a low overflight of the disaster area of New Orleans as he returned East -- the photo released by the White House of the president at the window of Air Force One meant to show concern became a symbol instead of his remoteness from the emergency.

Gustav, after reaching Category Four strength on Saturday, had returned to a Category Three storm this morning, with sustained winds of 120 mph. This was part of the 10 am ET bulletin from the National Hurricane Center: Katrina grew and subsided as well, and made landfall as a Three.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 120 MPH...195 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. GUSTAV IS A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME RE-INTENSIFICATION IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 12 TO 24
HOURS AND GUSTAV COULD REGAIN CATEGORY FOUR STRENGTH LATER TODAY
OR TONIGHT FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE LIKELY THEREAFTER. BUT GUSTAV IS FORECAST TO REMAIN A MAJOR HURRICANE UNTIL LANDFALL.

GUSTAV IS A LARGE TROPICAL CYCLONE. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 50 MILES ...85 KM.. .FROM THE CENTER... AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 200 MILES...325 KM. NOAA BUOY 42003 RECENTLY REPORTED 8-MINUTE AVERAGE WINDS OF 54 MPH... 86 KM/HR...WITH A GUST TO 67 MPH...

by James Oliphant

SOMEWHERE IN WESTERN OHIO--Campaigns are long marches. Extended, heavily choreographed, highly accessorized, marches.

They aren't unlike Hollywood movies or Broadway plays. What the viewer sees on the screen is the result of hours, days, even weeks of preparation.

For those like us who are along for the ride, that means there a eternal stretches of lassitude, punctuated briefly by something that somewhat resembles action, but lacking any of the attendant drama.

Right now, the press bus is rolling across the farmlands of western Ohio. We just passed through a town named Mt. Victory, where one homeowner has planted a sign that reads "No way, No How, No McCain."

The town has also preserved an old Gulf gas station, harking back to the happy times of cheap gas and boundless optimism.

Perhaps Barack Obama may want to consider having an event there. You can't beat a burg named Mt. Victory for symbolism.

In Kenton, Ohio, a laundromat is named "The Soap Opera." An honest-to-goodness drive-in outside of town is called "The Hi-Road." This week's movie: "Babylon AD." Make of that what you will.

Last evening, in Marysville, the press corps descended on a small joint called Sandy's Bar & Grill. It turns out Sandy is a Chinese woman who runs the place, serving up Chinese dishes along with draught beer. She kept the place open just for us. (A smart play. She can probably shutter the place now and retire.)

Small-town America exists and is in good form. You just have to dig for it.

by Frank James

I just watched Homeland Security Sec. Michael Chertoff's brief press conference at Andrews Air Force base just before he got on a plane to head to the Gulf Coast region to check in on preparations for Hurricane Gustav.

The secretary, a very nice man, said the levees are stronger than they were before Hurricane Katrina. Chertoff should doublecheck that information.

The reporting I've read indicates that the levees are not generally and absolutely stronger. True, some levees have been strengthened and rebuilt after they failed.

But there've been questions about the rebuilding efforts that reconstructed levees that failed after Katrina.

There's also been seepage under a few of the levees that has confounded the Army Corps of Engineers.

Some of the levees that held up under Katrina are among those that experts are most worried about.

Here's a story from New Orleans's Times-Picayune newspaper from April 17, 2008.

Despite withstanding Hurricane Katrina and being poised to become the area's first levee to reach the vaunted 100-year storm elevation, the East Jefferson lakefront levee might not be adequate and may need to be totally rebuilt or substantially enlarged.

"Our new method of analysis has given us (data) that we don't intend to ignore," said Lt. Col. Murray Starkel, deputy commander of the corps' New Orleans District.

by James Oliphant

DUBLIN, Ohio--Sen. Barack Obama Saturday evening called for residents of the Gulf Coast to "take the evacuation seriously, even if you have ridden out the storm before."

Obama, along with his vice presidential pick Joe Biden, held a brief session with the press following a rally here. They said they had spoken to Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and other federal and state officials about the approaching Hurricane Gustav, now escalating in intensity by the hour.

"Obviously this is a very serious situation," Obama said. "Every indication has the storm bearing down on the Louisiana coast. And it is potentially a very powerful storm."

Biden, whose daughter attended Tulane University in New Orleans, added "Do not ride it out. Ride it out of town."

Obama said that there appeared to be good coordination between the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the states and local governments "at this point."

He said he had no plans to go down there. "Sometimes we can be a distraction."

In response to a reporter's question, Obama declined to give an opinion on whether President George W. Bush should skip the opening of the Republican National Convention in Minnesota.

Obama also answered a couple of questions about John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, essentially repeating his remarks of a day ago. He called her "dynamic person" with a "great story." But he said that she appeared to share McCain's views on the economy and foreign policy.

And he sidestepped a question about her experience versus his own, instead pointing to the record of Biden, saying "I'm happy with my choice. McCain can talk about his."

by James Oliphant

DUBLIN, Ohio--Barack Obama and Joe Biden took their message to the nation's test-market Saturday evening, hosting a boisterous outdoor rally outside Columbus, Ohio.

With the sun sitting over a football field at Dublin-Coffman High School, Obama and his running mate took turns bashing opponent John McCain, largely on pocketbook issues. Obama, particularly, pointed to President George W. Bush's comments Saturday that the economy was making progress, even as a report said personal income in July saw its largest drop since 2005.

Estimates had the crowd at the sprawling suburban high school as high as 19,000. Local campaign officials said it was larger than expected, especially given that this Saturday was the highest of holy days in Central Ohio: the day of home football game for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Obama referred to as much, leading the crowd in a chant of "OH-IO" -- the same one done at football games. (One wag in the press corps said, "I wonder what he'll do in Michigan?")

Biden took some fresh foreign policy swipes at McCain, saying that Obama had been proven right in his positions on adding troops in Afghanistan, setting a timetable for the removal of forces in Iraq and opening a diplomatic dialogue with Iran. "Barack Obama was right. John McCain was wrong."

Biden was cheered loudly when he referred to his native Scranton, Pa., perhaps suggesting that his roots may play well in this state as well. As for the newly announced vice presidential nominee on the Republican side, Sarah Palin was not mentioned by name. Obama joked, however, that in the 19 months of the campaign, he has visited every state in the country "except Alaska." The crowd hooted. "I might have to get up there," Obama said.

Obama and Biden were introduced by retired Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), still a legend in his home state. And both politicians in turn praised Glenn, with Biden saying that meeting Glenn for the first time in the Senate was one of his biggest thrills.

by Jill Zuckman

Perhaps mentioning a liberal Democrat at a Republican rally isn't such a good idea.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was booed tonight when she said Sen. Hillary Clinton's name.

At the Consol Energy ballfield in Washington, Pennsylvania, Palin delivered essentially the same biographical stump speech as she did in Dayton, Ohio on Friday, pointing out that it is almost 80 years to the day since women in the United States got the right to vote..

But this time, when she mentioned the women who came before her citing the history-making nomination of Geraldine Ferraro, as well as Clinton's "determination and grace" in the 2008 Democratic primary, boos greeted Palin. They were long and loud near the press section.

Palin plowed on, noting that Clinton got 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest ceiling and "it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet."

by Mark Silva

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Get this: Michael Moore, the filmmaker, had this to say about the onslaught of Hurricane Gustav on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

"I was just thinking, this Gustav is proof that there is a God in Heaven.'' Moore said with a chuckle in a televised interview.

"That it would actually be on its way to New Orleans for Day one of the Republican convention up in the twin cities at the top of the Mississippi River,'' Moore said, in an interview with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, on Countdown.

Moore quickly sobered up and added: "Certainly, I hope nobody gets hurt. I hope everybody's taking cover....

"Let's hope things get better.''

But when Olbermann mentioned the follower of the Rev. James Dobson who was praying for rain during Barack Obama's open-air speech before thousands in Denver last week, Moore said:

"I hear the Rev. Dobson, his actual name is Gustav.''

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - They won't back down.

Protesters preparing for the Republican National Convention who were targeted in a series of police raids Friday night and Saturday said the march will go on, on opening day.

Organizers hope to attract up to 50,000 people to the protest Monday, at the planned opening of the convention.

Four people were arrested at two Minneapolis homes and booked on probable cause of conspiracy to commit a riot, according to Gina Berglund, an attorney assisting protesters.

There were no arrests at a third home targeted. Later, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office said a fifth person was arrested at an undisclosed location.

"A lot of people in the activist community are really on pins and needles about who's next," Berglund said.

Protester Michelle Gross said a fourth home, this one in St. Paul, was being raided Saturday afternoon.

Two people were outside the home in handcuffs while police awaited a search warrant, she said. St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said a search warrant was being executed but could not confirm whether anyone had been arrested.

On Friday night, Ramsey County sheriff's deputies raided the organizing site of the RNC Welcoming Committee, which plans to disrupt convention activities. No one was arrested.

"They will not crush our spirit," said protester Lisa Fithian, who came from Austin, Texas, at a gathering of about 300 people in a Minneapolis park this afternoon. "Our organization will continue. We will be on the streets."

The Associated Press provided this report.

by Frank James

The Obama campaign is out with two new ads today that continue their attempt to have voters see President Bush every time they look at Sen. John McCain.

One ad features images of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's vice presidential running mate and tries to brush aside the novelty factor she represents with the line ""So while this may be his running mate, America knows this is John McCain's agenda" at which point you see video of McCain hugging Bush.

The other ad, aimed at Michigan voters, bashes McCain for opposing federal loan guarantees for the auto industry which Obama supports. It also accuses McCain of voting to ship U.S. jobs overseas.

The ad ends with a photo of McCain and Bush walking together, Bush's hand affectionately on McCain's back.

The Obama campaigh's strategy is clear and undeviating. They intend to make McCain synonymous with the unpopular Bush. And they're not going to be distracted from this by anything the the McCain campaign might do to try and change the subject.

by Mark Silva and updated

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Sen. John McCain, keeping a watchful eye on Hurricane Gustav - now a Category Four monster steaming into the Gulf of Mexico - says the storm also could have an impact on the staging of the Republican National Convention that opens here on Monday.

"You know, it just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,'' McCain says in an interview with FOX News Sunday that will be shown tomorrow, "so we're monitoring it from day to day, and I'm saying a few prayers too.

Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi and inundated New Orleans, Gustav arrives in the Gulf with a force similar to what Katrina first threatened.

Gustav has reached Category Four - Katrina had achieved the maximum category, Five, before making landfall as a Category Three. And this may not be a good sign of things to come: ABC News had reported that the FEMA chief said Gustav had reached Five a little while ago, only to add that the National Hurricane Center says, no, it's still a Category Four.

The predicted path of the storm includes New Orleans.

Chris Wallace asks McCain, for FOX News Sunday: "Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Are there any circumstances under which you would consider suspending the Republican convention if the hurricane really bashes that part of the country?''

"I'm afraid, Chris that we may have to look at that situation and we'll try to monitor it,'' McCain replies in the interview, an excerpt provided by FOX.

"I've been talking to Govs. Jindal, Barbara O'Reilly, Christ, I've been talking to all of them, but you know it just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster, so we're monitoring it from day to day, and I'm saying a few prayers too.''

The Republican National Committee says the convention is still on, for now, but they are monitoring events.

The Naional Hurricane Center said this about the storm reaching Category Four: "GUSTAV BECOMES AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE...WESTERN EYEWALL DIRECTLY IMPACTING THE ISLE OF YOUTH... A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE CUBAN PROVINCES OF PINAR DEL RIO...LA HABANA...CIUDAD DE LA HABANA...ISLA DE JUVENTUD...MATANZAS...AND CIENFUEGOS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY IN THE HURRICANE WARNING AREA SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED.'',,

People wait at New Orleans Amtrak station on Aug. 30, 2008 to be evacuated out of the possible path of Hurricane Gustav. Photo: Matthew Hinton/AFP/Getty Images.

by Frank James

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- How competent will the federal government prove to be in preparing for and responding to Hurricane Gustav while the party that controls the Executive Branch hold its national convention?

That question, and the Bush Administration's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, hangs over the Republican Party as it prepares to convene in nearby St. Paul on Monday.

The obvious question is, how will Bush Administration respond this time? Based on what officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are saying, it will be night and day.

Here's what Adm.. Harvey Johnson (ret) FEMA's deputy administrator and chief operating office, said at a briefing in Washington, D.C. yesterday:

A huge difference between 2008 hurricane season and 2005 hurricane season. We just finished about a two-hour video teleconference, which is about an hour too long. (A good sigh this. It makes Johnson sound like a man of action.)

Contraflows will come into place across almost all states in the Gulf Coast on Sunday morning, about 4:00 or 5:00. All states talking to each other, planning together, sharing resources and working together as a team.

by Jill Zuckman

SEDONA, Ariz. -- As he prepares to accept his party's nomination for president in Minnesota this week, Sen. John McCain insists he understands the economic anxieties Americans face, despite his own family's wealth and attempts by Democrats to portray him as out of touch.

"I have town hall meetings all over the country all of the time and I know how people are hurting," McCain said in an interview with the Tribune. "I don't think Americans are too concerned that my father-in-law was able to achieve the great American success story--they want to stay in their own homes."

Still, on the eve of the Republican National Convention, McCain concedes he faces a "head wind" as the GOP candidate Democrats are trying to brand him as the heir to a very unpopular President George W. Bush.

After a roller-coaster year-and-a-half when he was counted out and withstood derision for insisting that the war in Iraq was still worth fighting, McCain heads into the general election polling virtually even with Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain has caricatured Obama as an empty-headed celebrity who is so arrogant he considers himself "The One." During the interview, McCain decried "the trivialization of the campaign," disagreed that he is stressing his prisoner of war years too much, and said he is excited that his two sons in the military will be able to attend the GOP convention.

The issue of relating

The Obama campaign has suggested that McCain can't relate to struggling Americans, given his family's vast wealth. Cindy McCain inherited her father's Anheuser Busch beer distributorship, which is the third largest in the nation and provides her with substantial income. The family owns multiple homes in Phoenix, Sedona, San Diego and Virginia. And a family trust, funded primarily by John McCain, gives away about $200,000 a year to schools and charitable organizations.

McCain rejected the idea that his homes, which are in Cindy McCain's name, would make him unable to understand voters' economic anxieties and pain.

"First of all, I think a lot of them know I spent 51/2 years in a lot of anxiety and pain," he said, referring to his time as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. "And I didn't have a kitchen table and I didn't have a chair."

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Barack Obama is getting high ratings for his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, with 58 percent of those surveyed giving it a positive review and 43 percent saying it could make them more likely to vote for the junior senator from Illinois seeking the White House.

Obama also has maintained an eight-point advantage over rival John McCain in Gallup's daily tracking poll, which includes the last two days of the convention and the day afterward - the day that McCain named his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The Democrat leads the Republican by 49-41 percent in the daily track, a measure of Obama's "convention "bounce,'' Gallup says.

"The Friday interviewing was conducted in an unusual political environment -- the first conducted fully after Obama's well-regarded acceptance speech,'' Gallup notes.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans give Obama's speech a positive review, including 35 percent calling it "excellent."

Both ratings surpass those for the 2000 and 2004 presidential candidates - with Obama's excellent rating "higher than any other other recent candidate has received.,'' Gallup reports.

by Frank James

Now that Sen. John McCain has decided to turn his presidential campaign into a sequel of "Northern Exposure," the all-things-Alaska hit 1990s TV series, an essential guide is needed to Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska and can be found on the Mudflats blog.

Written by an East Coast transplant to Alaska who goes by the moniker AK Muckraker, the blog gives an Alaskan eye view of Palin's political career and the state's rather colorful politics.

After Mccain announced his pick, a Mudflats post started thusly: :

Is this a joke?" That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we're sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national 'nod'....but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she's a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor's once pristine image.

There is no doubt in my mind that many Alaskans are feeling pretty excited about this. But we live in our own little bubble up here, and most of the attention we get is because of The Bridge to Nowhere, polar bears, the indictment of Ted Stevens, and the ongoing investigation and conviction of the string of legislators and oil executives who literally called themselves "The Corrupt Bastards Club".

Mudflats also has one of the most comprehensive explanations I've seen of the Palin scandal known as Troopergate:

Alaskans really want to like Sarah Palin. In a state where corruption is the rule, and the same faces keep recycling over and over and over again like a bad dream, a new face, with a promise of reform seemed like a breath of fresh air. Palin defeated incumbent governor Frank Murkowski (father of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski who he appointed to his own Senate seat when he was elected governor) because he was such an obnoxious, bloviating, downright BAD politician. This staunchly republican state voted with relief, not having to cross over and vote Democratic, but still able to get Murkowski the hell out of office. In the general election Palin swept into office running against a former Democratic governor, Tony Knowles, who was capable but came with baggage. And he represented to Alaskans more of the same, tired old-style politics, and special interests that we have come to loathe.

by Mike Dorning

BEAVER, Pa.--Democratic running mates Barack Obama and Joe Biden departed their party convention Friday for the country's industrial heartland to press economic themes as they revved up their campaign for the fall election.

Obama plans to spend Labor Day weekend and the period of the Republican convention next week on a road trip through the electoral battlegrounds of the Great Lakes region, stressing the competing presidential candidates' divergent responses to the nation's economic troubles.

Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, joined Obama and his wife, Michelle, for the opening days of the campaign swing, the first time the two couples have hit the road together since Obama announced his choice of running mate last weekend.

Biden provided a full-throated call to arms on behalf of Obama to the white working-class voters that the Illinois senator struggled to win over in the Democratic primaries.

"There's never been a time since I've been around where so many people have been knocked down and this government has paid so little attention," Biden said, speaking from a flag-bedecked white gazebo at an evening rally in the Western Pennsylvania town of Beaver.

Biden introduced Obama as "the man that's going to get them back up."
A crowd of thousands roared out boos for the Bush Administration's economic record and cheers when Obama declared of the years of Republican rule, "Eight is enough."

But the setting also underscored the Democratic ticket's challenges. Beaver is the seat of a county that voted 70 percent to 30 percent in favor of Obama's opponent in the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton.

Obama was soundly defeated in Democratic primaries in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, big electoral prizes that are shaping up as highly competitive in November.

The Obamas and Bidens moved on to Ohio, where they are scheduled Saturday to attend the funeral of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland, who was a prominent supporter of Clinton in her primary bid.

by Jill Zuckman

PITTSBURGH, Pa.--There is an inverse symmetry to the Republican and Democratic tickets now that Sen. John McCain made the bold gamble of choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

In Palin, 44, the veteran McCain, 72, has paired up with someone who has been governor for just two years, preceded by two terms as mayor of Wasilla, population 9,780 . She has little to no foreign policy or national security experience, compared to McCain, who has served on Capitol Hill since 1982 and is ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.

By contrast, Sen. Barack Obama, who moved from the Illinois State Senate to the U.S. Senate three and a half years ago, took a more traditional route, picking Sen. Joseph Biden to be his running mate. Biden has spent virtually his entire career representing Delaware in the Senate since 1972 and is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. And his foreign policy and national security experience dwarfs Obama's by decades.

From almost the moment McCain's decision became public Friday morning, Democrats pounced on Palin's lack of experience on the national stage.

"It is a real roll of the dice," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). "Certainly the choice of Palin puts to rest any argument about inexperience on the Democratic team, and while Palin is a fine person, her lack of experience makes the thought of her assuming the presidency troubling."

Republicans pounced right back, underscoring what they see as Obama's own limited credentials.

"Palin has more executive-level decision-making and governing experience in two years than Obama and Biden do combined," Scott Reed, Senator Bob Dole's 1996 campaign manager. "This decision restructures the whole race."

by Frank James

Day three of the Great Comments Crisis on The Swamp. On Thursday, we were forced to disable our comments board after the incredible volume of comments traffic we received on an Obama-WGN posting which Drudge linked to wound up swamping our site. (pun intended.)

Unfortunately, we've gotten caught up in a web of unintentional consequences. After turning off the comments, we now can't turn them back on for some reason our technical people can't figure out.

It there's a Movable Type expert out the there who experienced a similar problem and solved it, I have a simple request. HELP US, PLEASE HELP US!!!!

While our technology team tries to solve this problem, we ask for your continued patience. We realize it's hard to keep a blog community together when the interaction that is the very definition of community is missing.

But if you have to have a technological mishap, better that it happen under these circumstances instead of, say, when you're having open-heart surgery or hurtling five miles above the earth in a jet aircraft. We will, all of us, I hope, try to keep this in perspective. Let's call this a blogcation.

by Andrew Zajac

Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh boosted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's pro-life position and mocked Barack Obama on his radio show yesterday with a make-believe riff in which Obama asked Palin "When you found out your baby would be born with Down syndrome, did you consider killing it before or after the due date?"

Limbaugh's "humor" caught the fancy of the Republican National Committee, which, in an internal e-mail, proposed using the bit in a YouTube clip.

The e-mail, which was sent to RNC Communications Director Danny Diaz, and mistakenly to a Tribune reporter, was titled "wow...good YouTube potential..."

The rest of it reads:

"Rush, just now imagining a series of questions that Obama can ask Palin, if they ever meet:

One about how to shoot a gun...
One about do you bait your hooks when you go fishing?

And then, this (paraphrase):
"when you learned that you were going to have a Down Syndrome baby, did you consider aborting it, before or after the due date?""

by Jill Zuckman

DAYTON, Ohio -- On his 72nd birthday, Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a little-known, tough-talking social conservative with corruption-fighting credentials, to be his running mate, rattling the dynamic of the presidential race.

Saying he has found "the right partner to help me stand up to those who value their privileges over their responsibilities," McCain introduced Palin, 44, the first female governor of Alaska, to a stadium filled with more than 12,000 exuberant voters Friday -- the largest crowd of his campaign.

She "knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries," said McCain, who first met Palin in February. "And I am especially proud to say in the week we celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage, ... a devoted wife and a mother of five."

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Now, it goes without saying that anyone in public life makes a few enemies along the way.

But the folks at Grizzly Bay.org, dedicated to all things grizzly, clearly have no love for Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska named by Sen. John McCain as his running mate.

"Gov. Palin wants bears dead,'' the organization declares.

The governor is a hunter, though we assume grizzlies are off-limits. The group also quotes the Anchorage Daily News from September of 2007 as suggesting that "Palin works hard to cripple the eco-tourism industry in Alaska.''

Whatever the merits of their argument, the picture found at their Web-site of Palin and "the barbarians'' seems priceless -- and unlikely to make an appearance in those fawning videos that the parties like to show of their candidates at the conventions.

by Mike Dorning

PITTSBURGH--No word on whether they made any crank calls to one of the McCain homes.

But even as Barack Obama and Joe Biden were getting to know each other better, the younger members of the families were doing the same through that familiar childhood event, the sleepover.

So said Barack Obama outside an ice cream shop in Aliquippa, Pa., this afternoon in response to reporter's question on the mood of the new Democratic ticket.

"You know, our families have just really hit it off," Obama said. "We had some of his grandkids over for a sleepover with Malia and Sasha and they- they just had a great time. I'm absolutely convinced that Joe Biden is the right person to help move this country in the direction where working families have a shot."

An Obama press aide said a few of the Biden grandchildren stayed the night together with the Obama girls at a hotel suite on Tuesday, the night before Biden delivered his speech to the convention.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Barack Obama's "convention bounce'' has put him eight percentage points ahead of Republican rival John McCain in the latest daily tracking poll - with McCain hoping that his naming of a running mate today will start reining in his opponent's advantage heading into next week's Republican National Convention.

It's Obama 49, McCain 41, in the latest Gallup Poll track.

The two had been virtually tied in the national daily tracking surveyl that Gallup runs heading into the first convention, and if McCain gets his own bump from his convention, they could be tied again coming out of the conventions.

"Obama's significant lead over McCain almost certainly reflects the effects of the Democratic National Convention,'' Gallup's Jeff Jones reports today.

"The two presidential candidates were tied at 45 percent in the last Gallup Poll Daily tracking results conducted entirely before the convention began,'' Jones notes.

These latest results come from interviews conducted Tuesday through Thursday night, though most of the interviewing was concluded before Obama's televised acceptance speech here. So there is a potential for a slightly larger spread between the two when today's tracking is finished.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Thirty-eight million people watched the television coverage of the closing night of the Democratic National Convention here, with Sen. Barack Obama accepting the party's presidential nomination with a pledge for sweeping "change'' in America.

The TV audience for Obama's big show at the mile-high stadium in Denver -- 38.4 million -- was 3.3 million larger than the TV audience that Sen. John Kerry drew with his acceptance of the party's presidential nomination in 2004, according to Nielsen.

Obama drew a bigger audience than those who preceded him at this year's convention -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, his chief rival, had drawn the largest audience of the other convention stars, with 26 million viewing her speech on Tuesday.

Obama, the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party, also has drawn a larger TV audience among black households than among white households, according to Nielsen: Drawing a 21.0 rating among African American TV viewers and a 12.4 rating among white viewers.

Older viewers continued to dominate the covnention home-audience, with people 55 and older watching Obama's big show at five times the rate of teenagers (with ratings of 23.7 and 4.5 respectively.)

by Mark Silva

DENVER - President Bush calls the pick of first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as longtime Arizona Sen. John McCain's running mate "exciting.''

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, a Democrat, calls the Palin pick "dangerous.'' Palin suggests that she can break open the "cracks in the glass ceiling'' that Democrat Hillary Clinton made with her campaign for president, but Boxer suggests that voters won't simply accept any woman for a pioneering role.

That pretty much sums up the wide spectrum of reaction that might be expected today about the announcement that Palin - elected governor of Alaska two year ago and a former mayor of tiny Wasilla - will go to the Republican National Convention in Minnesota with McCain next week.

"Today, Sen. McCain made an exciting decision in choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin,'' the president said in a statement issued by the White House. "Gov. Palin is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government.

"Gov. Palin's success is due to her dedication to principle and her roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic and serves as a wonderful example of the spirit of America,'' Bush said. "By selecting a working mother with a track record of getting things done, Sen. McCain has once again demonstrated his commitment to reforming Washington.

"Ths decision is yet another example of why the American people can trust him to make wise decisions and to confidently lead this country,'' Bush said of McCain.

Yet, as our colleague Don Frederick at Top of the Ticket notes today, the reaction from California's Democratic Party ranks is somewhat less enthusiastic:

"The vice president is a heartbeat away from becoming president, so to choose someone with not one hour's worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice,'' Boxer said.

"If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken. The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart. Sen. McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a woman on his ticket, such as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe -- they would have been an appropriate choice compared to this dangerous choice.

"In addition, Sarah Palin is under investigation by the Alaska state legislature, which makes this more incomprehensible.'

That legislative inquiry in Alaska involves a call that Palin's office made to the state police recommending the firing of an officer who is a brother-in-law of Palin and in a child custody dispute. Palin has maintained that she did not authorize the call and the aide who made it has been suspended.

by Jill Zuckman

Dayton, Ohio - Saying he has found "the right partner to help me stand up to those who value their privileges over their responsibilities," Sen. John McCain introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to an exuberant stadium of voters this afternoon in this crucial swing state.

McCain made a stark appeal with his choice of Palin to women and union members and voters worried about the economy - all people who are key to victory in states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Palin, McCain told the crowd, "was a union member and is married to a union member and understands the problems, the hopes, the values of working people."

She "knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries," he said. "And I am especially proud to say in the week we celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage, a devoted -- a devoted wife and a mother of five."

"She's exactly who I need, she's exactly who this country needs, to help me fight...the same old Washington politics of me first and country second," McCain said.

Palin, who is the youngest person ever elected governor of Alaska and also the first woman elected governor, returned the praise after introducing her husband and four of her five children.

"A colleague once said about Senator McCain, 'that man did things for this country that few people could go through. never forget that,'" she said. "And that speaker was former Senator John Glenn of Ohio. And John Glenn knows something about heroism. And I'm going to make sure nobody does forget that in the campaign."

Palin also paid tribute to Sen. Hillary Clinton, who won 18 million votes in the Democratic primary, but not her party's nomination. And she acknowledged Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated for vice president.

"I can't begin this great effort without honoring the achievement of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and of course, Hillary Clinton, who showed determination in her presidential campaign," Palin said. "It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- It seems the Obama campaign, typically assiduously on message, has two messages in mind today on the matter of Sarah Palin, Republican rival John McCain's running mate:

Obama Campaign spokesman Bill Burton this morning (10:44 am CT):

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same.''

And Sens. Barack Obama's and Joe Biden's statement (12:10pm CT):

"We send our congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the republican nominee for Vice President. It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign.''

It seems that, if McCain can run a TV ad congratulating Obama for a "job well done'' in obtaining the Democratic Party's nomination while running YTV ads accusing Obama of being "dangerously unprepared'' for the presidency, then the Obama campaign can congratulate camp McCain for the Palin pick while slamming them for it.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Credit Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska for two years and a former mayor of Wasilla, with the experience necessary to become president of the United States, perhaps - one of the criteria that John McCain said he'd require in his running mate.

If that's the case, then the McCain campaign will have to suspend its line of attack against Democratic rival Barack Obama, a member of the Senate for four years and former state legislator from Illinois. In its ads, the McCain campaign slams Obama as "dangerously unprepared'' for the presidency - with Republican National Committee ads labeling Obama as "the most inexperienced candidate of our times.''

But Palin?

McCain, senior senator from Arizona, turns 72 today, and stands to become the oldest American ever elected to a first term as president should he prevail over Obama on Nov. 4. So the 44-year-old whom McCain presents today as his running mate certainly offers a relative image of youthfulness, as well as a woman on the ticket - the first on a major party's presidential ticket since the Democrats tapped Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

Yet, as McCain often has joked, one of the few requirements for the vice presidency is looking after the health of the president on a daily basis. So, should Palin find no breath on the mirror held under McCain's nose some day, is she ready to be president?

On the question of national security, the McCain campaign has offered Palin's control of the Alaska National Guard. Really? They say her son, a soldier and one of her five children, is bound for Iraq. One of McCain's sons already has served in Iraq.

"I don't know too much about her,'' Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas allowed in the round-robin of cable news interviews about McCain's pick today. "But maybe that's the good news,'' said the seasoned Republican senator from Texas who was said to be among McCain's potential running mates.

"The fact that she doesn't know the ways of Washington may be the best of all,'' Hutchison said in an interview aired by CNN -- calling Palin an "outside the Beltway'' candidate (and that's an understatement) "in her favor.''

by Jim Tankersley

DENVER--The flags waved and the "change" signs flapped and the flashes twinkled like fireflies. And the son of a Kansan and a Kenyan channeled a preacher with a dream, a Democrat from Hope and a Republican who saw morning in America, as 80,000 strong shook a coliseum with their feet.

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night on a specially constructed soundstage in Denver's Invesco Field. His 44-minute speech mixed a searing indictment of his Republican opponent and the Republican incumbent with Clintonesque personal touches and Reaganesque optimism, promising to repair "the broken politics of Washington" and preside over a more prosperous and equitable America.

"Tonight," Obama said, "I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land--enough! This moment--this election--is our chance to keep, in the 21st Century, the American promise alive. "

The speech rode a line between policy and personal revelation, between high-flown oratory and elbow-grease appeals to the working class voters who have stubbornly eluded him throughout the campaign.

He slapped at rival John McCain even as he called for an end to Washington's partisan politics, including appeals for common ground on contentious issues: abortion, gay rights, gun control and immigration. And he addressed nearly every major criticism of himself and his campaign head-on.

"I don't believe that Sen. McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans," he said. "I just think he doesn't know." And: "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell--but he won't even go to the cave where he lives." And "John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time ... I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.

Jim Tankersley writes for the Chicago Tribune. Read the full story on Obama's speech at ChicagoTribune.com.

by Andrew Zajac

John McCain may have some work to do with Republican Party pros regarding his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate if the underwhelmed reaction of former Maryland GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich is any indication.

Ehrlich (pictured at right in a 2004 file photo) was in the Tribune Co. studios a few minutes ago taping a TV talk show.
On the air, Ehrlich offered an anodyne comment on Palin, saying that he didn't know much about her -- which ain't exactly a momentum-building statement.

As he left the studio, Ehrlich offered a further evidence of confusion, if not unhappiness.

"I gotta go digest this choice," he mumbled to a couple of acquaintances.

It was a surprise, one of them said.

"Everybody's surprised," he said, in the pained way one makes such a statement when an unexpected bit of news is not perceived as good.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Republicans are keeping a wary eye on Tropical Storm Gustav, which is forging a path through the Gulf of Mexico and could threaten New Orleans or other points along the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane early next week.
.
But at this stage, the Republican National Committee says, all plans are go for the Republican National Convention in Minnesota that opens Monday.

" We're monitoring the situation and moving forward with the convention at this time,'' a party spokeswoman told the Tribune this morning. "Senator McCain has always been sensitive to national crisis - in the 2000 race he postponed his announcement because of the situation in the Balkans.''

Sensitive indeed. The image of a lavish Republican Party underway as a damaging storm strikes the Gulf Coast could serve as a painful reminder of the criticism the Bush White House suffered for its handling of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated coastal communities and New Orleans three years ago this weekend.

The Bush administration's handling of the Katrina catastrophe in the early days subjected the president to widespread criticism for a lack of concern.

The Washington Post today reported that the threat of Gustav is serious enough that White House officials were considering canceling his convention appearance on the opening night of the party meeting in St. Paul., Minn.

Both the president and Vice President Dick Cheney are slated to speak on the opening night - though Bush is scheduled to fly on to the Camp David presidential retreat that night.

"For Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gustav threatens to provide an untimely reminder of Hurricane Katrina,'' the Post notes. "A new major storm along the Gulf Coast would renew memories of one of the low points of the Bush administration, while pulling public attention away from McCain's formal coronation as the GOP presidential nominee.''

by Jill Zuckman

Dayton, OHIO - Sen. John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a tough-talking social conservative with sterling credentials as a reformer, to be his running mate, campaign officials confirmed.

McCain, who turns 72 today, is expected to announce his choice at a rally in Dayton at noon today at the Ervin J. Nutter Center where about 12,000 people were waiting. After the rally, the pair plans to take the Straight Talk Express campaign bus to Pittsburgh.

Palin is the first woman governor of Alaska, elected in 2006. She was also the youngest ever elected at the age of 42. She is the mother of five children, the youngest of whom was born in April with Down's Syndrome. She ran on a clean government platform in '06, defeating the incumbent Republican Governor Frank Murkowski.

In a statement, McCain called Palin "a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president. She has brought Republicans and Democrats together within her administration and has a record of delivering on the change and reform we need in Washington."

The statement also said Palin has challenged the influence of the big oil companies while fighting for the development of new energy sources. "She leads a state that matters to every one of us - Alaska has significant energy resources and she has been a leader in the fight to make America energy independent," he said.

by Aamer Madhani

In the leadup to Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech last night, a series of plain-spoken Americans testified about their support of the Democratic nominee.

It was a nice show of average Americans explaining their passion for the campaign.

Without a doubt the supporter who had the biggest laugh line was Barney Smith, a displaced manufacturing worker from Marion, Ind., who took a shot at the brokerage firm Smith Barney.

Smith Barney had its image tarnished for its financing of Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy company which had an epic collapse due to dodgy accounting procedures. The financial collapse, ultimately, led to the ruin of many blue collar workers' pension funds which were invested in what was considered a blue chip company.

"We need a president who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney," Smith said.

Nice shot, Barney.

But for the record, it's probably worth noting that both Obama and Sen. John McCain have received a tidy sum in campaign donations from employees of Citigroup, the $1 trillion financial services group that Smith Barney is part of.

Obama received more than $408,000 in contributions from Citigroup employees and families in 2008 while McCain received more than $268,000 this year, according to OpenSecrets.org, a campaign finance web site run by the Center for Responsive Politics.

by Mike Dorning and updated

Oprah Winfrey, who was at the stadium to watch Obama's acceptance speech, called it "the most powerful thing I've ever experienced" and compared the moment to going back in history to listen to a speech by Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Martin Luther King.

"I've never experienced anything like that," Winfrey said in a basement hallway on her way to leave the building. "I cried my eyelashes off,'' she said after the speech.

"I woke up this morning and I went to Google and I googled the entire Martin Luther King speech because like most Americans I, you know, you listen to the 'I Have a Dream' part. In the earlier part of the speech, he talks about the promise of democracy. And I think that today that promise was fulfilled in a way that I never imagined in my lifetime," she said.

"And what I saw with Barack Obama was something that was transcendent and I felt transformational for me as a human being and for this country. And I only pray in the deepest part of my being that America will rise to this moment. And I feel that what he was able to offer us as individual citizens and as a united country was something that we have never seen before. I really, I think it's the most powerful thing I've ever experienced," she continued.

"I often wondered what it would be like to sit and listen to Lincoln speak or Roosevelt speak or what it would have been like to have been old enough to understand what Martin Luther King was saying 45 years ago today. And what he did brought that home in a way that I could never have imagined," she said.

Winfrey wasn't the only celebrity celebrating the nomination of a candidate whom the Republican Party is attempting to portray as a mere celebrity:

Good morning.

The Democratic convention is finished and now the attention turns to the Republicans and their convention next week in St. Paul.

Meantime, Republican presidential contender John McCain is unveiling his running mate today at a rally in Dayton.

Elsewhere, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is releasing its preliminary report on the cause of the recent salmonella outbreak.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Under a cloudless and darkened sky on a cool night on a field a mile high, Barack Obama walks the length of a dark blue-carpeted stage with a lighted colonnade evocative of the West Wing behind it to address more than 70,000 people cheering and waving flags and placards for the Democratic Party's history-making nominee for president.

"With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States,'' says Obama, 47, the junior senator from Illinois.

"This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st Century, the American promise alive,'' Obama says, with a speech that is a mixture of inspiration and tough criticism for the incumbent president and the Republcian who would succeed him, John McCain. " Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third.

"And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough...''

The Republicans are ignoring the needs of America, he says, and his rival is continuing to ignore them, "not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.

"For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.

"Well it's time for them to own their failure,'' Obama says, voicing the theme on which he has waged a historic campaign for the White House. "It's time for us to change America.''

* * * *
With a 45-minute address, Obama declares: "At defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. 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.

"America, this is one of those moments.''

* * * *

On the football field here, Obama tackles John McCain on his own home-field advantage: National security. No one can tell him that "the party of Roosevelt'' and "the party of Kennedy'' will not keep this nation safe, Obama tells the cheering crowd.

. "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have,'' Obama says -- "with news for you, John McCain..

"John McCain likes to say that he'll follow (Osama) bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives.''

* * * *

Barney Smith, a former Republican from Marion, Ind., says it's time that the GOP start listening to Barney Smith instead of Smith Barney.

* * * *

DENVER -- "Barack Obama's keynote address changed politics in America,'' says Sen. Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, introducing Sen. Obama, the junior senator and Democratic nominee for president. "Tonight, Barack Obama will accept our nomination to be president of the United States of America.

"His journey from that moment to now has taken him to every corner of this nation,'' Durbin (pictured at left in photo by Ron Edmonds/AP) tells the nighttime crowd at Invesco Field, a full house for an historic nomination acceptance speech, biggest house ever. "Like another son of Illinois'' Durbin says of Obama, whose campaign started in Springfield, Ill., "he has spoken to the people about the better angels of our nature.''

"Barack Obama has the good sense to know that the future of our nation is in the hands of hard-working Americans, not in the selfish grasp of the politically powerful,'' Durbin says. Tomorrow, he says, is "the dawning of a new day... With this election, the greatness of America can return.''

"Yes, America can,'' Durbin says. "Yes, we can.''

* * * *

DENVER -- "I always dreamed I'd stand in this place, but I was hoping I'd be standing next to my friend Floyd Little,'' says Joe Biden, standing on the stage of the Denver Broncos stadium here at Mile High.

"We're here for the millions of Americans who have been knocked down,'' Biden says. "We're hear for the cops and the fire fighters, the teachers and the assembly line workers.''

The Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee is talking at dusk, as camera-flashes flickering throughout the stadium light up the stands.

The stadium is nearly full now, all but the nose-bleed seats in the deck behind the stage filled. The "wave'' has gone around a few times. The place holds 76,000 for a game, and they have set up 5,000 seats on the field, so it would seem that the Democrats have corralled the 75,000 they sought.

(Joe Biden snaps a picture of himself with an unidentified Army National Guardswoman at Invesco Field. AP Photo by Ted S. Warren)

* * * *

DENVER -- Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the president, is wearing red, but the audience at mile high is seeing blue tonight.

"I stand before you tonight not as a Republican or as a Democrat, but as an American,'' Eisenhower tells the audience as dusk nears. "Barack Obama has already articulated a powerful visiion for our nation's future and our standing in the world...''

Eisenhower is evoking the name of a Republican cited often here today.

"On Dec. 1, 1862, in his annual message to Congress, Abraham Lincoln immortalized this thought when he said: 'We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth,''' she says. "Let us respond this November to President Lincoln's challenge.''

* * * *

DENVER - "Let the sunshine in,'' rings the song from the public address system as large American flags unfold and wave in the deck of the stadium across from the stage Al Gore is taking.

"Hair?'' For Gore?

"The question facing us is, simply put, will we seize this opportunity for change?'' asks Gore, the former vice president and presidential nominee of his party in 2000.

"Eight years ago, some said there was not much difference between the nominees of the two major parties and it didn't really matter who became president,'' says Gore, who lost an electoral college vote to President George W. Bush. "Our nation was enjoying peace and prosperity. Some assumed we would continue both, no matter the outcome. But here we all are in 2008, and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn't matter.

"Take it from me, if it had ended differently, we would not be bogged down in Iraq, we would have pursued bin Laden until we captured him,'' says Gore (pictured at the podium in photo by Tanney Maurey/EPA). "We would not be facing a self-inflicted economic crisis; we would be fighting for middle-income families. We would not be showing contempt for the Constitution; we'd be protecting the rights of every American regardless of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation. And we would not be denying the climate crisis; we'd be solving it.

"Today, we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000, though it may be even more obvious now, because John McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of the Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them,'' Gore says. "The same policies all over again?

"Hey, I believe in recycling, but that's ridiculous,'' says Gore, who shared in a Nobel Prize for his work on climate change. "With John McCain's support, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have led our nation into one calamity after another because of their indifference to fact; their readiness to sacrifice the long term to the short term, subordinate the general good to the benefit of the few and short-circuit the rule of law.

"If you like the Bush-Cheney approach, John McCain's your man,'' Gore says. "If you want change, then vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.''

* * * *

Barack Obama's opponents say he is inexperienced.

So was Abraham Lincoln, Gore suggests.

"A century and a half ago, when America faced our greatest trial, the end of one era gave way to the birth of another. The candidate who emerged victorious in that election is now regarded by most historians as our greatest president. Before he entered the White House, Abraham Lincoln's experience in elective office consisted of eight years in his state legislature in Springfield, Illinois, and one term in Congress - during which he showed the courage and wisdom to oppose the invasion of another country that was popular when it started but later condemned by history.

"The experience Lincoln's supporters valued most in that race was his powerful ability to inspire hope in the future at a time of impasse. He was known chiefly as a clear thinker and a great orator, with a passion for justice and a determination to heal the deep divisions of our land. He insisted on reaching past partisan and regional divides to exalt our common humanity. In 2008, once again, we find ourselves at the end of an era with a mandate from history to launch another new beginning. And once again, we have a candidate whose experience perfectly matches an extraordinary moment of transition.

"Barack Obama had the experience and wisdom to oppose a popular war based on faulty premises. His leadership experience has given him a unique capacity to inspire hope, in the promise of the American dream of a boundless future. His experience has also given him genuine respect for different views and humility, in the face of complex realities that cannot be squeezed into the narrow compartments of ideology. His experience has taught him something that career politicians often overlook: that inconvenient truths must be acknowledged if we are to have wise governance. ''

* * * *

DENVER -- "Ba-rack Obama,'' sings Stevie Wonder at the close of a song sung with a standing choir as the last light of the sun in the stadium rests on the upper-deck behind the stage. "Yes we can, yes we can...

"I gotta do this one,'' says the old boy wonder from Motown, sitting down to an electric keyboard.

"Here I am, signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours,'' Wonder sings, dedicating his song to "the future president of the United States.''

"I know Barack Obama's gonna set this country on fire,'' the singer once known as Stevland Morris sings. "Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours.''

(Photo of Stevie Wonder by Charles Dharapak/AP)

* * * *

DENVER -- "John McCain may pay hundreds of dollars for his shoes, but we're the ones who will pay for his flip-flops,'' Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico tells the mile-high audience, playing into a podium theme that McCain owns so many homes he cannot count them all.

"America faces a simple choice, do we want more of the same, or is it time to change America when America needs Barack Obama,'' Richardson tells the crowd, as the stadium fills to something somewhat short of capacity this evening.

"i have a question for you: Is anybody here going to miss Dick Cheney?'' asks Richardson, suggesting that Joe Biden will make "a great vice president.''

* * * *

DENVER -- "A change will do us good,'' sings Sheryl Crow, on the stage of Barack Obama's nominating party as the sun starts to set over the mile-high field -- with a slight variant of the lyrics of her song, "A Change Would do You Good.''

Seems a theme is coming here.

(Photo of Sheryl Crow by Jae Hong/AP)

* * * *

DENVER - "We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more,'' Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's nominee for president, plans to say in the center of a coliseum packed with tens of thousands of people here.

"These challenges are not all of government's making,'' Obama plans to say. "But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush... America, we are better than these last eight years,'' Obama will say. "We are a better country than this."

Contending that Republican rival John McCain has sided with an unpopular president 95 percent of the time, the Democrat plans to play on his campaign's call for "change'' with this comment on the senator from Arizona: "I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.''

Obama, the Democratic Party's 2008 nominee for president, first African-American candidate of a major party and first since John F. Kennedy to accept his party's mantle in a coliseum, will step to the top of a circular stage with a colonnade framed by Doric columns behind him to accept the nomination in a mile-high forum with an audience of 75,000.

The rival Republican Party has attempted to cast the "audacious'' setting itself as proof of the "celebrity'' that it is at the heart of Obama's extraordinary appeal to, in particular, younger generations of voters - "mile high and an inch deep.''

Jennifer Hudson, the American Idol contestant and Oscar-winning actress for her role in Dreamgirls, launched the ceremony with a soaring National Anthem early this evening as thousands started to pour into the triple-deck Invesco Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos. Stevie Wonder sings this evening.

David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, scoffed at the criticism for the venue. "I think it's time we taught them a lesson about how to organize and win elections,'' Plouffe told the audience starting to assemble on the field this afternoon.

"You've helped us respond to the sleaze coming from John McCain and his campaign,'' Plouffe told the crowd, the manager suggesting that this gathering was emblematic of the enlistment of voters which Obama plans to make the core of his campaign for the White House. "We're going to undertake a voter registration drive the likes of which American politics has never seen.''

* * * *

Al Gore, the former vice president and Democratic candidate for president in 2000 - and winner of the popular vote that year - will address the convention-plus crowd this evening.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, will introduce Obama, the state's junior senator.

Martin Luther King III, oldest son of the slain civil rights leader who delivered his "I Have a Dream'' speech 40 years ago on the national mall in Washington, will address the audience here. So will Rev. Bernice King, his sister.

But the speech of the night comes from the candidate who made a national name for himself with the keynote address at the podium of the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Rival John McCain airs a congratulatory TV ad today, saluting Obama for a "job well done,'' even in the midst of a bruising campaign in which the McCain campaign accuses Obama of being "dangerously unprepared'' for the presidency.

* * * *

Tonight, Obama has only himself to compete with, in the hope that the words for which he is remembered most on Nov. 4 will be issued on this one star-filled evening on a high plain.

"Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to,'' Obama plans to say, according to excerpts of his speech released.

"It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.

"It is why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.

(Photo of Jennifer Hudson singing the National Anthem by Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

by Andrew Zajac

Much has been made of the fact that tonight's scheduled acceptance speech by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama falls on the same date as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Our Baltimore Sun colleague David Steele also reminds readers that August 28 also was the date, in 1945, that Branch Rickey met Jackie Robinson and told him he had been picked to break Major League Baseball's color barrier.

As Steele points out in a column this morning , "a straight line can be drawn from Robinson opening the door to the national pastime of a rigidly segregated America to King voicing the ideals of a fully integrated society on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the son of a black father running for the highest office in the land."

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Bill Clinton, the former president, drew 24 million television viewers in his address at the Democratic National Convention.

Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and erstwhile candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, outdrew him - with 26 million viewers.

Viewership for the convention during the first three days was highest on Tuesday, the night that Sen. Clinton took the stage - 20 million households tuned in.

Indeed, the senator from New York outdrew Sen. Joe Biden, the Democrat from Delaware nominated for vice president (with 24 million TV viewers) and Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic nominee Barack Obama (with 22.3 million viewers.)

These are among the findings of the Nielsen ratings of the convention closing tonight in Denver.

Older viewers have dominated the convention's TV audience - people 55 and older. Nearly one in five Americans 55 and older - about 12.5 million 55-and-uppers - tuned in to the convention coverage Wednesday, according to Nielsen.

Seventeen million households tuned in to coverage of the convention on the broadcast and cable news networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, BET and TV One - according to Nielsen. Twenty million tuned in the second night, and 18.5 million the third night.

This is higher than the highest numbers of households tuning in to 2004 Democratic convention coverage on the first and third nights - 18 million households on those nights. For more, see the Nielsen report: Nielsen ratings.pdf

(Photo of Hillary Clinton after calling off the roll call on the convention floor and calling for Barack Obama's nomination by acclamation. Photo by Charles Dharapak / AP)

Jill and Joe Biden Thursday in Denver. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

by James Oliphant

There's a website named RateMyProfessors that must be the bane of all collegiate instructors everywhere.

Students are asked to rate their teachers on a scale of 1 to 5 in areas such as helpfulness, "easiness," clarity and, uh, hotness. That might give you some sense of how sophisticated an endeavor this is.

But since Jill Biden, wife of the newly minted Democratic vice presidential nominee, teaches English and composition at Delaware Technical and Community College in Wilmington, DE, we decided to take a look at her students' ratings.

Overall, from 16 responses, Biden earned an average of 3.6 for helpfulness, clarity and overall quality. And 4 students said she was, well, hot. (Joe, it's them, not us.)

Here are some of the comments, word for word:

shes a good teacher, a little hard on the research paper & class is very boring but how inresting is composition?

great teacher, straightforward and to the point. Very smart. Dresses nicely.

I've read some of the other ratings and find them surprising! I took Mrs. Biden two semesters ago While I was not her "pet," I found her to be extremely fair and a great teacher. I learned a lot from her and just want to say (in her defense) you must do the work to do well in her class... she gives no free rides!

This women does not care how her students do. First impressions are everything for her. If you don't get on her good side right away your screwed. I would advise not taking her class, but if you have to just pay attention and participate. Class wasn't too hard. Just a decent amount of work and very boring!!!

by Mark Silva

DENVER - "Dangerously unprepared.''

That's what one of John McCain's campaign TV ads calls Democratic rival Barack Obama.

"Job well done.''

That's what McCain says of Obama in a congratulatory convention-closing night ad, shown above, that the Republican is airing about his Democratic rival at nomination here in Denver. It's airing in several key states.

It's enough to make a voter's head spin.

The first ad, shown below, suggests that Obama has minimized the risk posed by Iran - "a tiny country'' that "doesn't pose a serious threat,'' The narrator, with a tolling bell in the background of the ad, says: "Terrorism. Destroying Israel? Those aren't serious threats? Obama, dangerously unprepared to be president.''

This is the ad that anyone waking up in Denver has seen on their morning news show watch here. It's coupled with a Republican National Committee ad that calls Obama the "least experienced'' candidate for president in modern times.

But tonight, the McCain campaign is featuring an ad entitled "Convention Night.'' It features McCain offering his personal congratulations to the Democratic presidential nominee on this, his night of celebration at Invesco Field at Mile High.

"Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America,'' McCain says in the ad. "Too often, the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight senator, job well done''

So which is it?

"Dangerously unprepared?'' or "Job well done.''

It looks like McCain was against Obama before he was for him.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Cindy McCain's half-sister knows how she's voting:

Barack Obama.

That's what Kathleen Hensley Portalski tells Usmagazine.com. "I'm not voting for McCain," Portalski tells Us. "I have a different political standpoint... I'm voting for Obama. I think his proposals to improve the country are more positive and I'm not a big war believer."

Cindy McCain, 54, likes to say she is an only child -- and she is the only daughter of the late Jim and Marguerite Hensley. Her father founded the Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Pheonix which is the source of her wealth today.

But Portalski, 65, was born of Jim Hensley and his first wife.

In an interview with NPR News' All Things Considered last week, Portalski said that she had felt "like a non-person" after Cindy McCain had described herself as an "only child." Portalksi calls her half-sister: "kinda cool, standoffish.''

There doesn't appear to be any reconciliation in the works -- certainlly not with the election at hand.

Portalski's son Nathan, a 45-year-old aerospace machinist, also is backing Obama, US reports: "I wouldn't vote for John McCain if he was a Democrat," he tells Us. "I would not vote at all before I'd vote for him...

He adds: "I question whether Cindy is someone I'd want to see in the White House as first lady.''

Ouch.

(Photo illustration of Sen..John McCain and wife Cindy McCain, and below, Kathleen Hensley Portalski, from Usmagazine.com)

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Here in the press box at Invesco Field, it's many hours from game time, but a small army of security forces and media people are flowing onto the sunsplashed field -- covered with flooring and seating -- and into the stands for Barack Obama's big night.

Several thousand seats arrayed around the covered field surround a circular stage framed by Doric columns, with a late Renaissance colonnade of columns and a tableaux of six faux window panes and real flags that looks suspiciously like some artist's rendition of the outside of the Oval Office at West Wing.

It may actually be closer to a Victoria's Secret window-dressing for the latest West Wing wear, however. Perhaps the campaign wanted to avoid the implication of that fake presidential seal that they once positiioned in front of Obama.

Before the day ends, some 75,000 people are expected to pour into this stadium, where Obama will accept his party's nomination as president. Cherish this moment, when the stadium, largely empty, stands as the eye of the media storm.

There's a certain amount of security here, of course. They say the highway that passes by the stadium will be shut down this evening.

And all who have followed the travails of convention security here in the Swamp this week will be glad to know that we didn't even attempt to sneak an apple in here. Heading to the concessions now. There's no covering a game like this on an empty stomach.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- The Bush boo-count has stablized at the Democratic National Convention, but the McCain-meter is starting to tick up significantly as the end nears.

At Countdown to Crawford, Johanna Neuman has been keeping track. Wednesday's tally shows that President Bush has fallen from 61 mentions to 57, but John McCain has shot up to 85.

"The biggest mentioner: Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who used Bush's name nine times and McCain's 22. But Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh mentioned Bush 12 times, and vice presidential nominee Joe Biden used McCain's name 13 times and Bush's seven -- if you include the time he misspoke and called McCain "George ... I mean John McCain."

Back at the White House, where Bush has returned from his Texas ranch vacation, spokesman Tony Fratto was asked if Bush was "surprised to learn that he has been head of the Bush-McCain administration.'' Fratto replied: "He is supporting President McCain .''

Told that he'd called the senator the president, Fratto said, "Did I say President McCain? Well we'll all be saying President McCain soon enough, don't worry."

by James Oliphant

TIME magazine has posted an interview with John McCain in which the candidate, by the magazine's measure, comes off as "prickly" and "abrasive."

Much of McCain's displeasure comes at the suggestion that he has abandoned his former approach as conductor of the "Straight-Talk Express," replacing freewheeling access to the media with super-structured talking points.

Here is some of the exchange:

TIME: There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?

McCain: Read it in my books.

TIME: I've read your books.

McCain: No, I'm not going to define it.

TIME: But honor in politics?

McCain: I defined it in five books. Read my books.

TIME: [Your] campaign today is more disciplined, more traditional, more aggressive. From your point of view, why the change?

McCain: I will do as much as we possibly can do to provide as much access to the press as possible.

TIME: But beyond the press, sir, just in terms of ...

McCain: I think we're running a fine campaign, and this is where we are.

TIME: Do you miss the old way of doing it?

McCain: I don't know what you're talking about.

by John McCormick

DENVER -- Other than those attached to dollar signs that must be reported to federal election officials, getting the Obama campaign to talk about numbers is often almost impossible.

Campaign manager David Plouffe is a numbers junkie, but the campaign is typically secretive on questions seemingly as simple as even how many workers are now in the Chicago headquarters.

So, it was interesting to read a dispatch yesterday from Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson about an appearance before the Iowa delegation by Jim Messina, Obama's campaign chief of staff.

Messina told the Iowans on Wednesday that "as of this morning, we have 2,504 staff." He also told the group that Obama's campaign has four PhD statisticians working in Chicago to crunch possible turnout, demographics and other metrics.

The full Radio Iowa dispatch is linked here.

DNC billboard that will greet Republicans attending next week's national party convention in St. Paul, Minn.

by Frank James

DENVER -- It's standard operating procedure for the each major political party to have a skunk-at-the-picnic operation at the opposing party's convention.

This week, high-profile Republicans, like Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty have been in Denver, attempting to spoil the festivities by attacking what they see as the vulnerabilities of the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

Next week, will be the Democrats' turn in St. Paul and they're telling us what they're plans are. One big difference is that will be appreciated by footsore reporters is that the Democrats plan on setting up their anti-McCain war room across the street from the Xcel Center where the GOP convention will be held. The GOP's anti-Obama war room was about a mile away from the Pepsi Center.

Here's what we've received in an e-mail from a Democratic operative.

We're going to have these billboards and bus shelter ads throughout the Twin Cities. We'll also have a "More of the Same Media Center" set up across the street from the Xcel Center and a mobile billboard that will stalk McCain's stops on the run up to the convention. Any chance you can do a post on it?

-- Daily press conference with top notch national and local surrogates (with breakfast!). We'll have a satellite truck on hand to beam it all across the country.

by James Oliphant, and updated

UPDATE: McCain told a Pittsburgh radio station Thursday that he has not yet made a decision on a running mate.

McCain instead joked that actor Wilford Brimley would be a good choice, since he is older than McCain.

McCain spoke glowingly about former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and said Ridge would be accompanying him to a rally in the state on Saturday, along with Mitt Romney. But McCain said not to read too much into that.

Also, worries in GOP circles about Joe Lieberman seem to be intensifying.

Here is the full Associated Press story.

Hey, it's not a text message, but it has its own drama. And McCain seems to be enjoying it.

*********************************

EARLIER: John McCain has made his choice and will be notifying his running mate Thursday, according to reports. He (or she) will be introduced Friday at a rally in Ohio.

Some folks are nervous--make that very nervous--that the pick is Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, a good friend of McCain's who will be addressing the Republican convention next week.

Politico reported Thursday that Republican strategist Karl Rove called Lieberman last week to ask him to withdraw his name from consideration and that Lieberman refused to do so.

According to that publication, Lieberman is a finalist, along with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Late in the game speculation, however, has turned to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) as a potential surprise pick.
Romney has been pushing hard for the job, being nearly ubiquitous on the air while in Denver this week.

by Frank James

We've temporarily had to disable comments because our server was being overwhelmed by comments on the Obama campaign-WGN item. We hate doing this since there's little we value more than the discussions that occur in The Swamp's community.

We are working on solving this problem and as soon as we do we will enable comments again. We appreciate your patience.

by John McCormick and Steve Schmadeke, updated

DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. (Listen to the interview.)

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."

Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an article for the National Review that looked at Obama's ties to Ayers, a former 1960s radical who later emerged as a school reform advocate in Chicago.

The magazine had been blocked in its initial attempts to obtain records from the University of Illinois at Chicago regarding a school reform initiative called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Obama chaired and Ayers co-founded.

Obama critics were quick to suggest that political clout could be involved in seeking to protect Obama from embarrassment. The school later reserved its position and made the records available Tuesday.

On Wednesday evening, Obama's campaign urged supporters to call the radio station to complain.

"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," the note said.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves," the note continued. "At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies."

Zack Christenson, executive producer of "Extension 720 with Milt Rosenburg," said the response was strong.

"I would say this is the biggest response we've ever got from a campaign or a candidate," he said. "This is really unprecedented with the show, the way that people are flooding the calls and our email boxes."

Christenson said the Obama campaign was asked to have someone appear on the show and declined the request.

-------------------------------------
From WGN-AM: Listen to the interview with Stanley Kurtz.

by Frank James

DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama got himself motivated for tonight's big presidential speech at Invesco Field by playing some hoops. Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post was the print pool reporter and wrote that no news was made:

No news

Obama gave a quick wave and a "hey guys, how ya doin'" on the way out the door.

by Frank James

When Sen, Barack Obama's presidential campaign announced that the Democratic presidential nominee would give his acceptance speech al fresco at Invesco Field, all of a sudden the weather became a concern.

Earlier in the week, the weather forecast raised concerns; meteorologists were calling for the possibility of rain today.

Some Republicans, including people of faith, created a controversy by letting it be known that they were praying for rain and got excoriated for it.

Truth be told, I've also heard a few reporters hoping for rain on Obama's parade because, frankly, they were fed up with the arrogant vibes coming off the candidate and his campaign. Maybe a good soaking at the football stadium would offer a much-needed corrective.

But whatever Obama's concerns are today, the weather isn't among them. The weather here in Denver has been near perfect all week with no rain. Today will be no exception.

While the sky off in the distance has occasionally looked threatening (there were those tornadoes about 20 miles away earlier in the week) the most anyone has been able to complain about is just how hot it can get here, when you're about a mile closer to the sun than you are in the nation's capital, as you wait on line to clear security or walk the few, but long, blocks between the Pepsi Center and downtown Denver.

The National Weather Service is calling for sunny skies with a high of 81 degrees and a slight wind from the southeast. Even the weather breaks Obama's way.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Barack Obama will take the field today.

Not since John F. Kennedy accepted his party's presidential nomination in 1960 has a candidate moved from his traditional convention hall to a field for the final acceptance speech. In Kennedy's case, that venue was the Los Angeles Coliseum.

In Obama's case, that venue is Invesco Field at Mile High.

The place holds more than 75,000, with 5,900 seats seat up on the field for this event: Obama on a stage near the sideline of the 50-yard line.

Like anyone preparing to take a stage such as this, Obama took a "walk-through'' of the stadium stage last night.

Of course, the Democratic Party hopes to generate a lot of excitement for their presidential nominee with this appearance. Spike Lee, the film producer, has suggested that this really is a sporting event - and all good players rise to their highest level in the big game. Tonight will be a "Jordan moment'' for Obama, Lee has told CNN.

The Republicans are spinning it this way: Further proof that Obama is a celebrity - "a mile-high and an inch deep,'' as the party has framed the message in Denver this week.

"It feeds into what Americans are beginning to realize, that this is celebrity without substance,'' Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered one of Republican John McCain's possible running mates, said in an interview with ABC News' Good Morning America this morning. "It feeds into the big hoopla, the big production -- it's about entertainment.''

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- "More of the same.''

That's how Joe Biden hopes to distill the campaign of John McCain.

"Change.'' That's how Barack Obama hopes to distill his own campaign.

Obama has a running mate now, a guy who famously takes the train home from Washington every night to be with his family. McCain will have a running mate on Friday -- it is said that he has made his choice. Watch for a leak of that news sometime today, to get a foot in the door of the news of Obama's acceptance speech this evening.

It will be the task of the running mates to drive the campaigns' messages about their rivals home. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, has gotten a headstart with his party's convention this week. The message was spelled out in the placards held by the crowd in the convention hall last night: "McCain... More of the Same.''

McCain has voted with President Bush much of the time, camp Obama is telling voters. "That's not change, that's the same,'' Biden said in his acceptance speech.

"Millions of Americans have seen their jobs go offshore, yet John continues to support corporations that send them there,'' Biden said. "That's not change. That's more of the same. he voted 19 times against raising minimum wage for people that are struggling just to make it to the next day. That's not change. That's more of the same. And when he says to continues to spend $10 billion a month when the Iraqis have a surplus of nearly $80 billion, that's not change. That's more of the same.''

by Mark Silva

DENVER - These conventions have a way of settling the worst family feuds.

The Clintons came to their party's convention under a cloud of suspicion: What, really, were the intentions of the former president and his wife, the senator from New York who fell short of the party's presidential nomination? Were they really here for Barack Obama, or here for themselves?

And Obama was coming to a convention supposedly divided: Could it really abide by the "audacious'' victory of the first-term senator from Illinois who defeated the party's first family?

And what would all of them have to say about that nagging suspicion that the Republican Party is attempting to plant in the minds of American voters: That Obama, plainly put, is "not ready to lead? -- "dangerously unprepared,'' as a new John McCain campaign ad claims.

"Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American Dream and restore America's standing in the world,'' former President Bill Clinton said at the podium of the convention last night.

"Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe,'' Clinton said, "has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.''

And how now the former first lady?

It's unfortunate, for the party's sake, that the most dramatic moment of the convention was not held for prime-time TV: Midway through the roll-call of the delegates that many wanted to avoid, for the sake of party unity, the Illinois delegation made a staged deferral to the New York delegation, where Sen. Clinton picked up a microphone and asked that the roll call be suspended and Obama nominated by acclamation of the convention.

"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity,'' Clinton called out from the floor of the convention hall, "let's declare together in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.''

The emotions running through this highly public reconciliation of warring factions on the day of Obama's historic nomination - even if it was only for the sake of public consumption - were causing some pause even among seasoned observers. Brian Williams, the anchor of the NBC Nightly News, was asking Michelle Obama, the nominee's wife, if she could believe that things were all playing out this way.

"I don't want too get to far ahead of myself because I think just from a sanity perspective - it's always better to be in the moment, to figure out what we have to do today, tomorrow and the next couple of days....to make sure we're doing the best job we can do,'' Michelle Obama said. "I try not to get too far ahead of myself, and that may lead me to be more of the kind of person, that if this is something that was meant to be, it will be.''

by Aamer Madhani

For much of the first five years of the Iraq War, the U.S. struggle to pacify Anbar province seemed like a quixotic effort.

The western province was where U.S. forces saw some of the fiercest fighting since Vietnam, a place where more than 1,100 U.S. troops have been killed in action since the start of the war. And with a largely Sunni population that was hostile to U.S. forces and the newly empowered Shiite government in Baghdad, Anbar looked as if it would be the toughest nut to crack in Iraq.

But on Wednesday, in a potent symbol of strides made in what was one of the most troublesome corners of Iraq, the U.S. Marine commandant, Gen. James Conway, said that U.S. troops will turn over control of Anbar to the Iraqi security forces sometime next week. Conway suggested that the security situation has improved so much that it is time to shift the Marines' presence to Afghanistan.

As the Marines hand over control of security to the Iraqis and move toward shrinking their bootprint in Iraq, they will leave behind a once-hostile Sunni population that is now more empowered but still mistrusted by Iraq's Shiite-dominated political apparatus in Baghdad

The final decision on shifting future deployments of Marines--there are now 25,000 in Iraq--would be made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has expressed his desire to send more troops to Afghanistan as fewer are needed in Iraq. But it's noteworthy that Conway's statement comes just weeks before Gen. David Petraeus, the outgoing top commander in Iraq, is expected to make recommendations to Gates for further troop cuts in Iraq.

Conway, who recently returned from a visit to Iraq, said Marines serving in the province told him that the areas where U.S. troops once were regularly assaulted by gunfire and roadside bombs are these days largely quiet.

"There aren't a whole heck of a lot of bad guys there left to fight," Conway said the Marines told him.

The transfer of authority in Anbar has been expected for weeks but was delayed in part by the reluctance of top Iraqi security officials to see the Americans go.

Still, the moment offers the Pentagon and Bush administration another emblematic reminder of the strides that U.S. troops and Iraqi forces have made in turning around the situation in a giant swath of Iraq that was the scene of some of the most gruesome episodes of the war and what many military analysts feared was a lost cause.

From 2004 through much of 2007, U.S. troops fought pitched battles along the Euphrates River in Anbar's infamous cities--Fallujah, Ramadi and Hamdaniyah--that were known as strongholds of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Good morning.

It's Thursday, August 28, the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the day when Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accepts the party's presidential nomination and tells the nation how he would govern.

Back in Washington, the Commerce Department is releasing the second quarter Gross Domestic Product report.

by Frank James

11:19 PM -- The Biden clan lasted on the stage longer than Obama did. He left the stage to let the Bidens have their moment.

If the night was about getting some momentum going into the last night of the convention, the delegates certainly seem more juiced at the end of the night than they were at the start. The Obama people got exactly the speech they likely wanted from Bill Clinton tonight. He provided the arguments for voting for Obama that the delegates can use in coming weeks when voters ask them why they should, especially since Obama has little foreign policy experience. They said the same about me, said Clinton, and look how well I did. If Obama loses, he won't be able to blame Clinton, at least he won't be able to point to tonight as one of the reasons.

Biden wasn't as strong as he was Saturday, the day he was formally introduced as the veep pick. But he still got the job done in terms of communicating his background to those Catholic voters in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and elsewhere the Obama campaign is desperate to get.

He also continued to show that he can channel the economic anxieties of the middle class and he spoke authoritatively about foreign policy and what he sees as the Bush administration's blunders. And he once again flayed McCain, though not in a mean, nasty way. More as a disappointed friend.

And with all those Biden grandchildren coming out on stage, Biden certainly looked the part of the eminence grise.

The reality is that a lot of what was said tonight will be overwhelmed, however, at least by voters who watched in flyover country, especially as they live their lives. It's the impression that matters most and the impression from tonight was certainly of a party that's come together. It really hasn't. Many Hillary delegates are still miffed and many Obama people nurse their own sense of grievance towards the Clintons.

But they looked like one big happy family on TV. And that counts for something.

So much for tonight's live blog. Join us tomorrow night when we live-blog the last night of the 2008 Democratic convention.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- "Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States,'' said the former president who presided over a great run of prosperity in the U.S.. And, said Bill Clinton at his convention perch tonight: "Barack Obama is the man for this job.''

These are the words that Democrats are looking for in a contest with Republicans contending, as the campaign commercials of rival John McCain allege, that Obama is "not ready to lead.'' And this is the one leader whom this party lends an undivided ear.

"In the end, my candidate didn't win,'' Clinton said of his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. "But I'm very proud of the campaign she ran: she never quit on the people she stood up for, on the changes she pushed for, on the future she wants for all our children. And I'm grateful for the chance Chelsea and I had to tell Americans about the person we know and love.

"Like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

"Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American Dream and restore America's standing in the world,'' Clinton said. "Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - An interview with Barack Obama - suggesting that Democrats understood the U.S. could not "simply cut and run in Iraq'' -- will air tonight.

It was taped four years ago, during another convention, when Obama was the keynote speaker and the Democratic Party was nominating John Kerry for president.

At the time, the anti-war Obama, a candidate for the Senate, suggested that there wasn't much difference in the way that a Kerry administration or the Bush administration would handle the war in Iraq as it was playing out at the time, a little over a year into war.

Tonight, as Kerry takes a turn at the podium of the convention that today has nominated Obama for president, ABC News plans to air the four-year-old interview with the junior senator that Ted Koppel taped - the one in which Obama suggested that most Democrats knew "we cannot afford to simply cut and run in Iraq.''

"Do you think that most the delegates on the floor really understand that President Kerry is not going to pursue a policy in Iraq that is essentially different from the one that George Bush is pursuing?" Koppel asked Obama in that talk.

"Oh I think that they understand that," Obama said. "I think that they recognize that we cannot afford to simply cut and run in Iraq and that we are in a difficult situation right now. And I think that what they are hoping for is somebody who is going to bring a thoughtfulness and a base of experience to decision-making in the White House, which John Kerry possesses, and I think that George Bush does not."

See ABC's account of the Obama interview on Kerry, Bush and the war.

by Dawn Trice

DENVER -- It's about 2 p.m. mountain time, when I enter the Pepsi Center to interview the Rev. Al Sharpton.

He's in a place called Radio Row, an enclosed room with queues of tables where radio folk are broadcasting their shows. Although we have an appointment, he himself is heading off to an interview. We have to walk and talk. Before he can stand to leave, already there's a mob surrounding him.

Cameras are snapping. Like in those old movies, set in the 1950s. Only thing's missing is the sound of the flash. If you think Barack Obama is a rock star...

We leave Radio Row and head out into the main lobby of the center. He's recognized immediately and the people start to flock.

Here's what I find interesting: I get e-mail all the time about Sharpton. Much of it is disparaging. In fact, all of it is disparaging. In e-mails to me, readers have called him "a poverty pimp," "a race baiter." They often link him to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, referring to the two as "the reverends." They say he (or both) is the reason racism still exists and the reason too many blacks can't get jiggy with being "post-racial." (OK they don't say that exactly but you know what I mean.)

So I'm a bit stunned as I walk with him ---and he moves fast---that the majority of the people pleading for a picture are white. The majority of people hoping to make a quick introduction are white. The majority of the people waving are white.

See the rest of the account of my afternoon with Sharpton.at Exploring Race.

by Jodi S. Cohen

As reporters continued to dig through Barack Obama-related documents at the University of Illinois at Chicago library today, they were joined by four young men who wanted to remain incognito.

The men, dressed in jeans and shorts and appearing to be in their early 20s, methodically sifted through boxes of documents related to an education reform program in which Obama and 1960s radical William Ayers played key roles.

The library patrons became flustered when asked by a Tribune reporter if they were affiliated with the Obama or John McCain presidential campaigns.

"I'm not talking about that," said one of the young researchers, who, along with a colleague, began looking at documents when the library opened at 10 a.m. Tuesday. When they signed the visitor log, one left blank the space describing his organizational or institutional affiliation. The other one wrote something, but then crossed it out to make it illegible.

The other two young men arrived at around 1:30 p.m., according to the library log. They also didn't list their affiliation. And they sat at a separate table from the first two polo shirt-clad, anonymous researchers.

A reporter asked the new arrivals whether they were with any particular group. "We're kind of just on our own," one of them said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

Were they UIC students? "No," he said.

Why were they interested in the documents? "I don't want to talk about it," he said.
The man sitting next to him chimed in: "It looked like it would be a fun read."

Both campaigns, however, later confirmed that they sent researchers to the library to review the documents related to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform initiative that Ayers helped get started and in which Obama served as the board's president.

by Frank James

Mayor Richard Daley gave a short testimonial to Barack Obama, the newly minted Democratic presidential nominee. No one will mistake him for Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana.

It was not a memorable speech. It was not meant to be. Obama essentially gave Daley a speaking role tonight because he had to. It was a sign of respect for the Daley organization which has helped his career hugely.

Daley, who is probably more a pragmatic politician more than a Democrat or Republican, said Obama is similar to him in that regard. We believe Daley on this one. In Chicago, it's not what you believe, it's what works. Or, often, what you can get away with.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Is Barack Obama's election meant to be?

"He'll win if it's meant to be,'' wife Michelle Obama says in an interview airing on NBC News. "And I'm also a bit superstitious. I never claim it out loud. We just do the work. I don't want to jinx it.

"I don't want too get to far ahead of myself because I think just from a sanity perspective - it's always better to be in the moment, to figure out what we have to do today, tomorrow and the next couple of days....to make sure we're doing the best job we can do,'' she says in the interview with Brian Williams, anchor of the NBC Nightly News, airing this evening. "So I try not to get too far ahead of myself, and that may lead me to be more of the kind of person, that if this is something that was meant to be, it will be.''

How often does she allow herself "to sit back and say I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe we're doing this,'' the anchor asks the candidate's wife in excerpts provided by NBC Nightly News with Brian Willams.

"Yeah, it is hard to,'' she replies. "I don't know whether I just don't allow myself to do it, or whether things are just so busy that there really isn't time between being on the campaign trail, and trying to keep the girls lives on track

"When I go back to Chicago, the first thing I need to do, is make sure the girls have their books for school, and they've got their school supplies, and they visited their school. Does Malia have her locker number? If I give you the sense of what runs in my head.''

For instance: "September at home... the start of the school year. That's the big thing in the Obama house.''

by Frank James

It's official. Sen. Barack Obama is now formally the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. History has been made in Denver as the senator from Illinois becomes the first African-American to become the official nominee of a major political party.

As planned, Sen. Hillary Clinton, once Obama's rival for the presidential nomination, asked that the convention stop the roll call and accept Obama as the party's nominee by acclamation or voice vote.

"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity,'' Clinton called out from the floor, "let's declare together in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.''

A loud roar of approval went up and Obama was made the nominee, at 5:50 pm Mountain time.

It is a moment that many people in this convention center and in the nation will remember for the rest of their lives. Whether Obama is elected president or not, he will always be known, as long as American history is taught and learned, Obama's name will be remembered as the individual who broke one of the last color barriers in the U.S. It still boggles the mind to think that the Democratic Party saw its southern wing exit the party's convention to form the Dixiecrat Party to protest Hubert Humphrey's pro-integration speech at the Democratic party's gathering in Philadelphia, Pa that summer.

Today represents the latest stage in what has truly been one of the most improbable presidential runs in the nation's history. The 47-year old who only four years ago was an Illinois state senator is now the standard bearer of the Democratic Party. It has been a meteoric rise by any measure.

Now we journalists can stop using the term "presumptive nominee" to describe Obama. But while he has accomplished something remarkable, he is still the nominee. He will be sorely tested in the more than two months left before the election by the all-but-official Republican nominee John McCain. In the past 30 years, only one Democrat who's received the coveted Democratic nomination, has become president.

And that man was the husband of the woman who asked that Obama's nomination be accepted by voice vote. It was an act of unity on her part to seek the voice vote, an attempt to heal the rift in the party between Obama and Clinton's supporters. To beat McCain, the party will need every bit of unity it can get.

by Frank James, updated at 6:49 PM

6:49 pm -- The deed is almost done. Clinton moves that a voice vote be taken and that the roll call be stopped. The crowd seconds. Nancy Pelosi asks for the ayes, and slams the gavel down before the nos can be heard. It's official.

6:46 PM -- Mayor Richard Daley is at the mike and Chicagoans are holding their breath since the mayor is not the best speaker. Illinois yields to New York. Sen. Hillary Clinton enters the hall with Sen. Charles Schumer at her side. The crowd sees her on the screen and cheers lustily. Senate Speaker Sidney Sheldon has the mike and hands off to Clinton who gets a loud ovation. Clinton speaks and says "in the spirit of unity, with faith in the party let's declare in one voice right here right now that Barack Obama is our candidate."

6:39 pm -- New Jersey cast all 127 of its votes for Barack Obama. New Mexico is the only state between us and Sen. Hillary Clinton who is to make a dramatic call for the convention to nominate Obama. Wait, New Mexico is yielding to Illinois which passed earlier. So it will take a little while longer to get to New York.

6:24 pm -- We're getting close, we're up to Minnesota, home of the winning ladies Duluth hockey team. Photographers are packed in around the New York delegation, waiting for the moment when Sen. Hillary Clinton asks for the roll call to be stopped and that a voice vote of the convention give the nomination to Sen. Barack Obama.

--------------------------------------------

I'm in the Pepsi Center now and the roll call of the states has started at the Democratic National Convention.

A Democratic source tells me that when the roll call gets to New York, Sen. Hillary Clinton will ask the convention chair that the convention approve the nomination of Sen. Barack Obama by acclamation. That's the deal that's been reached.

If it goes according to plan, it should be a pretty dramatic moment. California passing in the roll call was part of the plan. Arkansas's unanimous vote was apparently also part of the plan. That was a special moment since Clinton was once the long-time first lady of that state.

Welcome to Doubletake, your spin on the events of our time brought to you by Tribune correspondents Jim Oliphant and Jim Tankersley. This week, one of us is live from Denver and one of us is angry at the world.

Jim Tankersley: Howdy.

Jim Oliphant: You Western cuss, you. How is life among the rich and the restless?

Tankersley: It's glamorous. For example, this afternoon I ate lunch in a crowded downtown brew pub, waded through a parade of protesting anarchists and stood in a security line behind Anderson Cooper. And it's not even prime time yet!

Oliphant: How do anarchists even form a parade? See anyone famous? Besides, of course, Anderson Cooper.

Tankersley: Well, the entire Democratic Party is here, and I've seen plenty of it. But if you're talking Ben Affleck or Charlize Theron, then no. No I have not. How about you? Anyone famous at the zoo or the Smithsonian or wherever you went today?

Oliphant: I just saw Richard Dreyfuss ---- on MSNBC at the convention. Sigh.

Tankersley: I saw him from afar.

Oliphant: Which is sort of funny, because he is playing Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's new George W. Bush movie

Tankersley: Who is playing Lee Harvey Oswald?

Oliphant: Speak of the devil. I just watched Stone's "JFK" for the very first time the other night. It's a tapestry, son.

by Frank James

If Sen. John McCain wants to steal some of Sen. Barack Obama's thunder with his vice presidential choice announcement, scheduled for Friday, which name would make the biggest splash -- Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman or Kay Bailey Hutchison?

Some observers believe that if McCain chose Hutchison, the Republican senator from Texas, that could really shake up the presidential race and seize crucial convention momentum from Obama. There's a strong argument to be made that it would.

Selecting a woman as his vice presidential pick might appear to be pandering to women upset that Hillary Clinton wasn't selected as Obama's running mate. But pandering often works, which is why politicians do it.

It would also add a sense of historic possibilities to the Republican ticket, something none of the men being mentioned would do.

Hutchison doesn't have the most electric personality but she has an interesting life story that could hold a lot of appeal to a lot of women, especially those older women who were among Clinton's most loyal supporters and are now among the most disappointed..

Part of her biography resembles that of Sandra Day O'Connor, the former Supreme Court justice. Like O'Connor, after Hutchison graduated from law school, no law firm would hire her. So she became a television reporter.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- It's inevitable.

When "thousands of Democrats gather in a huge stadium to nominate one of their own to run for president,'' as Johanna Neuman notes at Countdown to Crawford, and "the president is an unpopular incumbent, and a Republican, they tend to boo. ''

Monday's speakers were restrained, mentioning President Bush a mere 14 times over seven hours.

But Tuesday revealed "a pattern that could escalate through the week,'' she suggests.
More speakers -- up from 44 to 52 -- mentioned the president more often. In fact there were 61 mentions of Bush, more than one per person.

"The Tuesday tally was given a huge boost by Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel.

"The Chicago politician, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, is sometimes called Rahmbo by his colleagues, a tribute to his passionate debating. In the long-running primary saga between Hillary Rodham Clinton, who he worked with in the Clinton White House, and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama, Emanuel was famously neutral -- and uncharacteristically silent.

But, by Neuman's count of his speech Tuesday night, "Emanuel was not neutral about Bush, posting a 2008 Democratic National Convention record of 13 mentions.''

by Mike Dorning

BILLINGS, Mont.--Barack Obama said today that Americans do not "owe" John McCain their votes for the years he spent in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp.

"We owe him gratitude for that," Obama said. "But we don't owe him our vote."

Obama has offered public demonstrations of respect for McCain and particularly his Vietnam service throughout the campaign even as he recently has been sharpening criticism of his Republican rival.

The McCain campaign has promoted his experience as a prisoner of war throughout the election and raised his time in captivity to deflect criticism during several recent controversies. On Monday, McCain again raised his time as a prisoner of war in an appearance on the Jay Leno show when the host ribbed him about a gaffe in which the Arizona senator could not remember how many homes he owned.

McCain's recent references to his prisoner-of-war record in controversies has stirred some criticism, most prominently in a Maureen Dowd column in the New York Times on Sunday.

Obama made his comment at a meeting with military veterans in which the Illinois senator criticized McCain for his economic policies as well as early opposition to Democratic sponsored legislation to expand benefits for veterans.

An aide said afterward that Obama's comment was a "riff" not planned in advance.

by William E. Gibson

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, an emerging star in cowboy boots at the Democratic convention, roused Florida delegates at their breakfast meeting this morning and even made them bark.

With bolo tie and infectious enthusiasm, Schweitzer vowed to bring Montana and its 3 electoral votes into the Democratic column. Montana hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since 1964.

He had a challenge for Florida and its 27 electoral votes.

"Florida is the big dog,'' the guest speaker said. "Are you going to let a tail like Montana wag the big dog, or is the big dog going to stand up and bark.''

That brought the Florida delegates to their feet and prompted more than a few to "Bark! bark! bark!''

Schweitzer, a perfect messenger to moderate rural voters who might have doubts about nominee-to-be Barack Obama, delivered a similar message to the full convention on Tuesday when he urged Democrats to "get off your rear end'' to get supporters to the polls.

``You don't win elections by going to conventions and breakfast meetings like this,'' he told the Florida delegates. ``You win elections by going door to door. You got to stand up and fight.''

"I'll make a deal with you,'' he said. ``If Obama wins in Florida, I'll deliver Montana.''

Schweitzer, 52, has been a stand-out, stand-up act here. He had been sandwiched on the convention program last night between keynote speaker Mark Warner and the evening's much-anticipated climax, Hillary Clinton's speech, the Top of the Ticket notes. The crowd was there to hear Clinton, and a parade of speakers preceding her had failed to grab its full attention (including Warner).

That is, until Schweitzer -- clad in blazer, blue jeans, bolo tie and cowboy boots (his signature look) -- strode unto the stage and got the hall on its feet -- "Stand up... stand up,'' he implored them. And they stood up.

And today he got them barking.

(Photo of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Bob Barr, the presidential candidate who can't get a seat in the fall debates - well, one of many minor party candidates who won't be invited - has found a forum of his own: The Colbert Report.

Barr will represent the Libertarians on the presidential ballot - "a political party that believes that it is my right as an American to varnish in an unventilated room,'' Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert explains in this interview.

Here, Barr tells of having a cigar with Al Gore.

"Different cigars... not one cigar,'' Colbert helps him clarify.

"The campaign is going good... about 6 percent across the country,'' says Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia who left his party. He says his party has gotten a spot on the ballots of 48 states.

Barr, who played an aggressive role in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, is asked if he might go after some of those "disgruntled Hillary supporters'' who say they will vote for Republican John McCain.'' No, he replies, "I don't think the disgruntled Hillary supporters would be big on Bob Barr...

"You underestimate your mustache, sir,'' Colbert says.

by Frank James

Many Americans, including many Democrats, had never heard Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer deliver a speech before last night. In fact, many had probably never heard of him period. They've heard of him now.

The guy has chops. He has the gift. He gave a great speech, delivered with electricity and oomph.

He probably should've been the keynoter, instead of former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner who didn't want to take off the gloves and pummel John McCain because Warner's running for governor in Virginia and he knows full well that McCain is plenty popular in much of the state.

The Obama campaign would not make a mistake if it asked Schweitzer to keep his schedule open so he can make campaign appearances in places like Iowa, Nevada, Missouri and Colorado where he would play well.

Sen. Ted Kennedy's was always the one Democrats looked to for the old-fashioned homerun of a speech that sounds like it could be delivered sans microphone. Clearly Schweitzer is someone who can readily do that.

by Jill Zuckman

On the Straight Talk Air, the person to see for T-shirts, baseball caps, beach balls, bumper stickers, and other swag is Steve Duprey, the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Duprey, a Concord developer, turned his business over to a colleague and hit the road with McCain following the senator's huge comeback in New Hampshire at the beginning of the year.

His latest T-shirt - in black - says: "I'd rather have a cool old dude with experience than a young hip celebrity with none. Vote John McCain."

In case you're wondering, "old dude" is what Paris Hilton called McCain in her rapid response video after McCain compared Sen. Barack Obama to Hilton and Britney Spears. Duprey insists he would never call McCain an old dude.

He also has shot glasses, T-shirts and caps that say "McCain Pirate." The Pirate comes from McCain's habit of growling with glee when he tells a story: "Aaaargh!" And a slew of T-shirts are patterned after rock bands, listing every city and date that McCain has visited during various campaign swings.

During the primaries, Duprey outfitted staff with new jackets and hats in every state. There was Team New Hampshire, Team Michigan, Team South Carolina, Team Florida and so on.

by Frank James

DENVER -- One of the oddest things about last night's Hillary Clinton speech had nothing to do with the senator.

The Secret Service shut down access to the hall while Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer was delivering his rousing attack on John McCain, leaving hundreds of people unable to get past the party volunteers posted as guards at each of the doorways into the seating area on the first and second levels.

This left hundreds if not thousands of people in the corridors where they had to watch Clinton's speech on TVs stationed around the facility. I nearly became one of those people forced to watch the speech on TV even though the real thing was happening only a few hundred feet away.

After speedwalking around nearly the entire arena and bouncing between floors, I finally made my way to Tribune's broadcasting booth and watched Clinton's speech from there.

This led to one of the evening's best moments, for me at least. Not only did I get to witness Clinton's historic speech, but I got to see WGN-TV anchor Allison Payne, an old acquaintance who I used to bump into on news assignments in Chicago. She was one of several Tribune TV journalists providing coverage of Clinton's speech.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Rush Limbaugh, who probably needs no commas after his name, already is passing judgment on the Democratic National Convention:

"Not one night has been believable,'' Limbaugh says in a talk with FOX News Channel's Bill Hemmer on America's Election HQ.

Limbaugh suggests that this is the "first time since 1976 that a convention has been more excited about a loser than the winner."

(That judgment may be trumped by Thursday night's assembly at Invesco Field at Mile High, where Sen. Barack Obama plans to accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. If Sen. Hillary Clinton's appearance in the convention hall last night appeared "exciting,'' it will likely pale in comparison with the celebration the party is planning on closing night.

(This will be the first time since John F. Kennedy stepped out of his convention hall in 1960 to accept his nomination at the Los Angeles Coliseum that a party's presidential nominee has taken a field apart from the hall. But, we digress, back to Rush here....)

Limbaugh doesn't buy the unity talk that Clinton is attempting to promote, suggesting that Obama's victory in November spells the end of Clinton's hopes for the presidency. "If Obama wins,'' he says, "she's finished.'' The Clintons still are counting on Obama losing, he suggests, and will do "whatever they can after they leave Denver to see that that happens." (Well, if the Clintons don't, Rush certainly will).

The Democratic Party, he maintains, "is so far different from the public image they try to portray...they are fractured, they are undecided."

(Photo for the Chicago Tribune by Carlos J. Ortiz)

by Frank James

First Lady Laura Bush has said that her husband had the best luck when it came to timing of anyone she's known.

More proof of that today. CNN is reporting that U.S. forces in Iraq will hand over the once super violent al-Anbar Province to Iraqi security forces on Monday.

Monday just happens to be the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. It is also the day when President Bush will address the convention.

The White House will say that the two events aren't linked and they may not be. It may be just a coincidence.

But even if it's just happenstance, there's no denying that the timing is fortuitous for Bush who no doubt will be able to elicit a big cheer from the crowd by mentioning in the part of his speech where he talks about the progress that's been made in Iraq.

Here's a snippet from an Associated Press story about the Marines drawing down in Anbar.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Marine commandant said Wednesday that his forces in Iraq's once-volatile western Anbar Province can be reduced, as the military moves to hand over control of the region to the Iraqis next week.

Reducing forces in Iraq, Conway said, is necessary in order to move any additional Marines into Afghanistan, where violence is on the rise.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Further proof, in the midst of all the convention news, that some people are living right on the edge:

After the speech that Michelle Obama delivered at the Democratic National Convention the other night, the police in Pasco County, Fla., got a call, as Andrew Malcolm at the Top of the Ticket tells it.

A man was standing outside his RV yelling and firing a gun into the air. When Pasco County sheriff's deputies confronted him, he ran inside and wouldn't come out. A six-hour standoff ensued. SWAT forces arrived, and before long were firing riot gas (we've heard of swamp gas, but riot gas is a new one) into the home. That didn't do it. Finally, at about 5 am Tuesday, the man came out and surrendered.

According to Kevin Doll, sheriff's spokesman, the "cause'' of the man's "displeasure:"Michelle Obama's speech at the convention.

The man, his name withheld, is undergoing some mental evaluation.

Why are these stories always datelined Florida?

by Frank James

The available statistics continue to paint a fairly gloomy picture of what's happening in the real economy. The latest report from the administrative office of the federal courts shows a 28.9 percent increase in bankruptcies, for the 12 months ending in June, compared with the year-earlier period.

This from the press release from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts:

August 27, 2008 -- In the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008, there were 967,831 bankruptcy cases filed, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That is a 28.9 percent increase compared to filings for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2007, when cases totaled 751,056. Historic data on bankruptcy filings is available on the Judiciary's website under Bankruptcy Statistics.

One more fact we can expect Democratic speechwriters to work into their bosses' speeches this week.

by Katie Fretland

"Good evening. I'm from Chicago, the hometown of the next president of the United States, Barack Obama," Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said last night to a cheering crowd at the Democratic National Convention.

"In the 2006 election, Democrats, independents and even some Republicans scored a victory that President Bush himself called a 'thumpin.' Well, Mr. President, as Ronald Reagan used to say, 'You ain't seen nothing yet,'" Emanuel continued. "The truth is, the Bush crowd has been giving the middle class a thumpin'. And this November, the middle class is going to give it right back."

Emanuel went on to draw comparisons between presumptive GOP nominee John McCain and President Bush, and to pitch Obama and his newly-announced running mate Joe Biden (D-Del.) as a needed alternative to improve the country's economy.

"A strong economy depends on a strong middle class, but George Bush has put the middle class in a hole, and John McCain has a plan to keep digging that hole with George Bush's shovel," Emanuel said.

"When it comes to the economy, when it comes to job creation, when it comes to health care reform our deficit reduction, there are three words to describe the Bush-McCain record: mission not accomplished."

by Frank James

Nature never takes a holiday. It is no respecter of human calendars. Thus we have Tropical Storm Gustav which is churning through the Caribbean and headed according to hurricane experts into the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm has already claimed victims in Haiti and is raising concerns that it will become a category 3 hurricane before making landfall anywhere between the Florida panhandle and Texa's Gulf Coast. New Orleans, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, is smack in the middle of the possible cone of probability and reports there indicate that worries there are rising.

Much of the city still bears the scars of the flooding that occurred as a consequence of levee failures after Katrina. And ever since the Army Corps of Engineers started the levee rebuilding project, there have been concerns in New Orleans and beyond about the adequacy of those efforts.

Beyond the anxiety Gustav is causing on the Gulf Coast, it is also jangling political nerves. With the storm on track to make landfall somewhere on the U.S.'s southern coast early next week, it could hit just as the Republican National Convention begins in St. Paul, Minn.

A category 3 storm striking the Gulf Coast would obviously divert attention from the politics of the moment, meaning the Republican convention. It's one thing to have to deal with Democratic attacks during a convention. Having to compete with a hurricane is completely of another magnitude.

Much of the national media will be decamping Denver where we've been covering the Democratic National Convention and heading to St. Paul for the GOP's big event. But if Gustav turns into a major storm, the best laid plans will have to change. Many a journalist here will be headed to the Gulf Coast.

Obviously, a hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast would be a stark reminder of the Bush Administration's failed response to Katrina just as Republicans are trying to turn the page and to get voters thinking about Sen. John McCain.

Already, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who is scheduled to speak at next week's convention said he won't attend if his state is under attack from Gustav. Other Republican officals from the Gulf Coast region may have to make similar declarations.

by Josh Drobnyk

Former President Bill Clinton, in what could be a preview of his speech Wednesday night, told party-goers in Denver Tuesday night that "this election is not about a politician."

The former president and his wife made a surprise appearance at a party at Invesco Field for the delegations of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Florida. Joined on stage by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and New York Gov. David Patterson, he said he was "so proud" of Hillary Clinton for making "the only argument that matters tonight."

"To Sen. Clinton in advance: I forgive her for upstaging me tomorrow night," he said. "I forgive her for making me looking like a second-rate speaker."

He added: "Hillary made the only argument matters tonight. Nothing else matters. This election is not about a politician."

He added: "Two thirds of the American people are having a tough time. ... And it is not going to get any better. So she made the case. ..."

"You really don't have any choice," he said. "There is not an option here. ... Don't forget -- out there in this country the American people are aching and they are looking to us to shell down the corn and deliver the goods and the only way we can do it is if we do it together."

by James Oliphant

Hillary Clinton mixed and poured her Unity cocktail last night. Tonight her husband, the former president of the United States, takes his shot at convincing America that Barack Obama is ready to be president.

But that doesn't mean he has to like him.

So says David Maraniss, the author and writer for the Washington Post, in a piece today in that newspaper. Maraniss says the relationship between Clinton and Obama is "anything but close" despite the fact that the two may be more alike than different.

Old heat and new cool, two guys who came out of nowhere, bereft of early connections, overcoming the odds. Each raised by a single mother and grandparents, in blended families featuring a variety of half siblings, with lost and distant fathers and stepfathers and no strong male role models. Both drawing on uncommon will, Ivy League legal training, mental agility, innate adaptability and the symbolism of hope to reach the heights of American politics.

Interestingly, (and likely not surprising to those who have followed Clinton) the piece suggests that Clinton's ambivalence toward Obama has little to do with Obama's victory over his wife, Hillary Clinton, in the Democratic primaries. No, it's a more basic, human, Clintonian reason.

Clinton knows Obama doesn't like him.

And as we know, for the former president, that's everything. Obama regularly consults with Clinton, the article says, but that won't feed the Big Dog:

Clinton associates, long familiar with his habits and rhythms, say it would take little more than phone calls on a somewhat regular basis to keep him satisfied. Attention has always been Clinton's lifeblood. "We all know that he wants to be loved. Just call him. Call him any time of day or night," said one associate. "Talk to him about anything. Talk to him about the Olympics or what he thinks about a certain congressional district or even about the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. Obama could even put the phone in a drawer and just let President Clinton talk away. It wouldn't take much. It could be so easy."

There's something irresistable about the image of Obama putting a phone in a drawer while Clinton talks on and on.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, who was a Hillary Clinton supporter in the primaries, suggests that media coverage of the contest made it tougher.

"Certain media outlets were openly partisan,'' Rendell says in this interview on FOX News. They portrayed Barack Obama as "the savior,'' he says, and "he is not a savior.''

Who was not biased? "Shockingly,'' he says: FOX. "Fair and balanced.''

"I"m going to get in a lot of trouble for this.''

For dissing the network (MSNBC) the Clintons love to hate?

by Frank James

DENVER -- The Mile-High City is teeming with bloggers covering the Democratic National Convention, the undomesticated ones who write for the partisan blogs and the tamer corporate versions like yours truly.

The political bloggers are here because this week Denver is the center of the Democratic Party's political universe. They're here because the national parties know bloggers represent an important new channel for communicating their messages and thus have significantly boosted their outreach to these citizen journalists.

They're here because a netroots power like DailyKos has joined Internet powers like Google and Digg and local organizations like ProgressNow and the Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado to bankroll work and discussion spaces in a downtown office building that this week is called the Big Tent a few blocks from the Pepsi Center. It's sort of a blogger convention within the larger Democratic convention.

So highly regarded are the political bloggers this year that political and media big shots as well as rank-and-file old media/new media hybrids like myself are making the pilgrimage to the blogger lounges at the Big Tent and the Pepsi Center to see what's on their minds.

CBS News anchor Katie Couric arrives at the Big Tent.

On Tuesday, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, in his signature cowboy hat, was doing interviews. Not long after he left, CBS News anchor Katie Couric appeared and waded into the crowded blogger workspace to see what they were up too. Even Death Cab for Cutie stopped by.

And what are these bloggers up to? The answers to that are as varied as the bloggers themselves. Some are out to expose the all too cozy relationships between lawmakers and lobbysists. Others are here because of their interests in state and local politics. Still others are searching for a movement that seems elusive.

Good morning.

It's Wednesday, August 27, Day Three at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, with former President Bill Clinton slated to speak and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden accepting the party's vice presidential nomination.

by Mark Silva and updated til the end now.

DENVER -- "President Obama'' -- the words roll off of Hillary Clinton's lips.She will utter the name of the Democratic Party's new champion just 12 times in this convention address, but enough times to make it clear that a torch is passing.

Like the white "Hillary'' placards in the hall that give way to blue "Obama'' and "unity'' placards. Now, if only all the party's activists believe it.

(Photo of Hillary Clinton in the hall by Mark Silva)

"When Barack Obama is in the White House, he'll revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time,'' Clinton tells the convention hall. "Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, President Clinton and the Democrats did it before. And President Obama and the Democrats will do it again.''

Her husband takes a bow in he skyboxes high above the floor.

Obama will "transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and building a new, clean energy future,'' she says. "He'll make sure that middle class families get the tax relief they deserve. And I can't wait to watch Barack Obama sign a health care plan into law that covers every single American.

"Barack Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly and bring our troops home - a first step to repairing our alliances around the world. And he will have with him a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Anyone who saw Michelle's speech last night knows she will be a great First Lady for America...

She also delivers a nod to Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware whom Obama has tapped for a running mate -- "passing over'' Clinton, as John McCain's camnpaign ads would have it.

"Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend,'' the senator says. "He has served our country with honor and courage. But we don't need four more years . . . of the last eight years.''

And Clinton gets off a clean shot at the site of the Republican National Convention coming next week: "It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart. ''

It would seem here tonight, as Bush once put it: "Mission accomplished.''

* * * *

DENVER -- "I am honored to be here tonight,'' Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York tells the Democratic National Convention. "As a proud mother. As a proud Democrat from New York. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama.''

It takes her only 27 words to get there.

"Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines.''

The hall fills with waves of white placards: "Hillary'' - and they bear the tagline of HillaryClinton.com. The senator wears a tangerine pantsuit at the podium, where she was introduced by daughter Chelsea Clinton, calling her simply: "My hero... my mother.''

As she speaks, workers quickly distribute blue and white placards: "Obama" and "unity.''

The white "Hillary" placards will give way to blue "Obama'' and "unity'' placards. Photo by Mark Silva

* * * *

DENVER -- "Hillary's husband'' -- that's how the former president is identified in a video featuring Bill Clinton and others in testimonial to Hillary Clinton.

The video has the makings of a nominating film -- complete with the humor of the Saturday Night Live comedienne mocking Clinton's laugh.

* * * *

DENVER -- Bill Clinton is in the house.

The former president kisses hands and greets all around him as he takes a seat in a skybox high above the Pepsi Center convention floor, in preparation for Hillary Clinton's address to the convention. He gets his chance to talk here tomorrow night.

* * * *

DENVER -- Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has an alarming message tonight: "Sen. McCain, it's time for your wake-up call.''

"I could say that John McCain represents four more years of Bush policies. But I don't have to, because his policy is telling you the same thing... He is offering policies that will keep us stuck in the past and our economy stuck in reverse.''

On President Bush: "It was said that he was born on third base and thought that he had hit a triple... George W. Bush came into office on third base and then he stole second.''

"It's time for a change, and Barack Obama will bring the change that is needed.'' And, running that baseball metaphor into the dust, Obama believes that every one deserves a turn at bat.

* * * *

DENVER -- "The most important contest of our generation has begun... the race for the future,'' says Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia, candidate for Senate and keynote speaker of the Democratic National Convention.

"There is no nation that we can't out-hustle or out-compete, and no American will be left behind,'' says Warner, who made his own fortune in the cell-phone industry.

"In America, everyone should get a fair shot,'' Warner says. "Barack Obama understands this.''

But there is none of the magic in this hall talk that the keynoter of the last Democratic National Convention gave - that would be Obama, in 2004, in Boston.

"John McCain promises more of the same, a plan that would explode the deficit,'' Warner says, "and he would continue spending $10 billion a week in Iraq.... I don't know about you... That's just not right. That's four more years that we can't afford.''

At least Warner understands what an impossible task he has here: "As governor of Virginia, it was humbling to occupy a position that was once held by Thomas Jefferson. Almost as daunting as delivering the keynote speech four years after Barack Obama or speaking before Hillary Clinton.''

* * *

DENVER -- "Four more months! Four more months!" chants the crowd on the convention floor, talking, of course, about President Bush.

Under the direction of Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, they are reminded that Sem. John McCain has voted with Bush most of the time."That's not a maverick,'' Casey tells the hall. "That's a sidekick.''

Casey calls Barack Obama "one of us'' and says, "Pennsylvania couldn't be prouder of our native son, Joe Biden from Scranton....

"When she endorsed Barack, Sen. Clinton called on all of us to do all we can to help elect Barack Obama president of the United States,'' Casey reminds the hall.

"The people of Pennsylvania can't afford four more years of Bush-Cheney economics,'' says Casey, stirring the chant, "Four more months!"

* * * *

DENVER -- It's that time of night, Swampfans.

Sen. Hillary Clinton will be taking the stage in Denver, in an attempt to heal the party's primary rift, and we've already spotted one of her chief campaign spokesmen, Mo Elleithee, in the hall sporting a new lapel button: "Hillary supporter for Obama.''

The warmup is warming up the house:

These Democrats sure know a theme when they see one.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas told convention-goers just now: "I'm sure you remember a girl from Kansas who said there's no place like home. Well, in John McCain's version, there's no place like home. And a home. And home. And home.''

But wasn't Sebelius supposed to be one of those short-listers whom Barack Obama was considering for a running mate?

Judging by the near monotone in which she addressed the convention this evening, it seems Obama has found a more stirring speaker in Sen. Joe Biden. And, surely, Biden will be talking about McCain's many homes in the months ahead.

* * * *

by Dahleen Glanton

DENVER--Following reports of divisions within the Illinois delegation, Mayor Richard Daley Tuesday made a plea to state delegates to come together and support Barack Obama.

"We are cheerleaders for Barack Obama. That's why we are here," Daley told members of the Illinois delegation during a private reception that was attended by Michelle Obama. "We cannot allow anyone to divide us when it comes to the general election."

Daley acknowledged Clinton supporters saying, "Let's give tribute to them. They worked hard."

The mayor's remarks came a day after reports that Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones, a mentor to Obama, called an African-American Clinton delegate an "Uncle Tom." Jones has vehemently denied it.

Michelle Obama, who came on stage after Daley had spoken, told delegates that the campaign would "need Illinois like nobody's business," adding that the Republicans already have begun firing up their attacks.

"It's already gotten ugly. The higher Barack rises, the more mud will be slung. They are piling it on even while we're here," she said.

Though the campaign is confident it will carry Illinois, she said, they are not taking anything for granted.

In the coming months, she said, she will travel to battleground states such as Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota, and she urged Illinois supporters to make day trips to those states to knock on doors.

"Our opponents are trying to portray us as different, as something to be feared," she said.

"We need people who know us to speak on our behalf," she said. "You are more compelling than any attack ad that can be put on television."

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Janet Napolitano, governor of Arizona, says that, as a "proud'' Arizonan, she wants to preserve one of the state's great traditions:

Losing candidates for president.

"Arizonans are rightly proud of our state,'' the Democratic governor said on the podium of the Democratic National Convention.

"Arizonans are also proud of their political tradition, from Barry Goldwater to Mo Udall to Bruce Babbitt,'' she said. "There's a pattern here. Barry Goldwater ran for president and he lost. Mo Udall ran for president. He lost. Bruce Babbitt ran for president. And he lost.

"Speaking for myself, and for at least this coming election, this is one Arizona tradition I'd like to see continue!''

Tongue firmly planted in check, she offered "something positive'' here about here fellow Arizonan, Sen. John McCain, the Republican party's candidate for president.

"When I heard him say the economy is not an issue he understands as well as he should, my problem was solved,'' Napolitano said. "Because I can say to you tonight, positively, that John McCain is right. He doesn't understand the economy as well as he should. And he doesn't understand how the policies he has supported and wants to perpetuate have so terribly misfired.''

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Is Mitt Romney ready for Joe Biden?

The implicit suggestion is that John McCain will send the former governor of Massachusetts into that running mate's debate with the senator from Delaware.

"You know, Joe Biden is an impenetrable thicket of words,'' Romney replied, in an interview on CNN's The Situation Room. "I can't imagine anybody is ready to debate Joe Biden.''

This apparently is Romney's own line attack. He told the same thing to Neil Cavuto on the FOX Business Network: "Senator Biden seems to be an impenetrable thicket of words, so I can't imagine having to go up against him. I think that almost anybody that goes up against him would find themselves outspoken.''

"But -- I don't have anything for you the VP front,'' Romney told both Cavuto and CNN's Wolf Blitzer.He told Blitzer: "I'm not sure when John McCain will make his announcement and who it will be. But I have confidence in his instincts. He's proven time and time again that those instincts serve him well. And I think he'll make a wise choice. ''

Romney was asked if he worries about his words for McCain during the Republican primary contest being replayed the way Republicans are replaying Biden's words for Obama.

CNN replayed Romney's comments calling McCain "out of the mainstream, at least in my view, of conservative Republican thoughts.... He is a co-author of McCain/Feingold (on campaign finance reform), he also was one of the co-authors of McCain/Kennedy (on immigration reform). I would also note that if you get endorsed by the "New York Times," you're probably not a conservative. ''

"Well, I think that the McCain campaign would be happy if they played that ad with my comments, because it just points out something that, well, I think everybody in America knows, and that is that John McCain is his own man, that he's not a carbon copy of any other Republican, including President Bush,'' Romney said in response to the clips. "And this whole line of attack that he's a continuation of Bush just isn't going to fly.''

The question is whether Romney will stand with McCain in Dayton on Friday, the 72nd birthday of the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee and alleged running mate announcement day.

"You know, in a debate we talk about why we're the right person to win and the other guy isn't,'' Romney said. "But one thing I never said about John McCain, so far as I can recall, I never said he wasn't qualified. I always said he's a man who I respected, he's an American hero, and I think with regards to Barack Obama, the reason these ads are so powerful is you have Joe Biden saying he didn't have the qualifications or the experience to be president. I agree with Joe Biden on that. '

"And I -- I think the American people are asking themselves, Barack Obama, he's a charming guy, he's a celebrity,'' Romney said, "but does he have the judgment and experience that comes from a lifelong service in one sector or another?''

by Mark Silva

DENVER - "Wake up.''

Dennis Kucinich is calling. And, man, is he stirring the hall. The animated, hyper-ventilated Clevelander was bouncing on his feet as he got the hall going this afternoon.

"We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call,'' Kucinich, the fervently anti-war Democratic congressman from Ohio who twice has waged campaigns for his party's presidential nomination, said at the Democratic National Convention today.

"Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care. ..

"Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan,'' he said. "No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

"If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children's inheritance and hollow out our economy.

by Mike Dorning

BILLINGS, Mont.--Hillary Clinton today offered congratulations to Michelle Obama on her speech to the Democratic National convention last night, according to the Obama campaign.

The former first lady and aspiring first lady had "a warm conversation" backstage in Denver today at an event sponsored by Emily's List, a feminist group that ardently supported Clinton in her primary bid and is now backing Obama, said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Obama in turn offered good luck wishes to the New York senator for her speech to the convention tonight, Psaki said.

Clinton had tried to reach Obama by telephone this morning to offer congratulations but was unable to connect because Obama was in the midst of a roundtable on economic issues, Psaki said.

by Dahleen Glanton

Ten-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha Obama got quite a surprise Monday night when they stepped on stage following their mother's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Speaking at an economic forum for women Tuesday morning, Michelle Obama, said she did not tell the girls that their father would appear on the screen and that they could talk to him.

"When we walked out, I whispered down and said, 'I've got a surprise for you.'"

Malia, said, "Is it the Jonas Brothers?

"In the end, she felt daddy was a decent second choice."

by Frank James

The Democratic National Convention isn't even half over and already we're looking ahead to next week's Republican version which Republicans have dubbed the "Country First" convention to tie in with the overarching theme of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.

As we've noted before, President Bush will speak the first night, and won't be lingering. Instead of overnighting in St. Paul, Minn., he'll be winging back east to relax at the Camp David presidential retreat.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, is also scheduled for Monday.

The four nights are themed service, reform, prosperity and peace. McCain is including on the program just about everyone who ran against him in the Republican primaries except Rep. Ron Paul.

No surprise there. During the debates when Paul would go into one of his diatribes against the war or arguments for a return to the gold standard, camera cutaways would often catch McCain with a smirk or incredulous look on his face.

Cindy McCain is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, prosperity night, which seems appropriate.

Wednesday is also when McCain's vice presidential choice will speak. Worth noting is that both Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, are scheduled to speak that night.

Here's the Republican National Convention's full press release:

"Country First": 2008 Republican National
Convention Announces Full Program

"The 2008 Convention program will bring together Americans who will speak to John McCain's vision for reforming our government, building prosperity and ensuring peace for future generations. We are excited about next week and we are looking forward to showcasing John McCain's life-long record of putting his country first," said Jill Hazelbaker, McCain 2008 communications director.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - That "everyday people'' sort of guy, Sen. John McCain, made an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night.

Seemed like the Tonight Show band had taken its cue from the Democratic convention, where Michelle Obama told the crowd; "You can make it if you try.'' The Sly and the Family Stone lyrics for the tune they played on McCain's entrance:

"Sometimes I'm right, and I can be wrong
"My own beliefs are in my song
"The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
"Makes no difference what group I'm in
"I, I, I, I, I, am everyday people, yeah yeah''

It will be McCain's birthday on Friday, Leno noted.

"Thank you for mentioning that,'' said McCain, who will turn 72 on Friday, and is likely to roll out the name of his presidential running mate that day to take some of the steam out of Barack Obama's convention closer on Thursday.

"Wouldn't it be good to have a person, you don't know what party they're with, they have no political principles whatsoever... they may need a job about that time,'' said McCain, pointedly suggesting that his pick could be the soon-to-be-free agent seated next to him.

"The approval rating for Congress is now down to nine percent... that's blood relatives and paid staffers,'' McCain said, reeling out a standard one-liner.

This, of course, is the candidate whom Democratic rival Barack Obama is attempting to portray as out of touch - the one with seven, make that eight, homes. This is the star of late-night comedy, the one who has dismissed Obama as a "celebrity.''

All's fair on late-night TV, especially for "everyday people.''

by Mike Dorning

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--Barack Obama went to an airline maintenance hangar Tuesday to stand before symbols of industrial might and make the case that his campaign is the champion of blue-collar America in this election.

In front of jet engines suspended on steel frames and an airline fuselage parked in the background, Ronald Harper, an employee at the maintenance base, introduced Obama as "a true working man's president."

And Obama was quick to argue Republican rival John McCain did not fit that bill, reprising a gaffe in which McCain could not tell an interviewer the number of homes he owned. The Republican's wife is the heiress to a fortune built up through a beer wholesaling business.

"He is out of touch," Obama declared. "I don't think he realizes what ordinary Americans are going through. I don't think the Bush Administration understands what ordinary Americans are going through."

The setting and theme previewed the themes of this evening's Democratic convention program as the party focuses on economic issues and the Obama campaign seeks to sharpen distinctions with McCain.

As his advisers plan to do during the convention, Obama sought to tie McCain to the legacy of the Bush Administration and the current economic pain.

"Just remember this," Obama said as he wrapped up his appearance, " Over the last 8 years, you've been falling behind."

"If you think the last 8 years have been good, you need to vote for John McCain," he added.

by Josh Drobnyk

DENVER -- Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball,showed up at the Pennsylvania Democratic delegation breakfast this morning, but was quick to dismiss the suggestion that he was laying the groundwork for a U.S. Senate bid.

"I have a professional responsibility to cover the campaign," a smiling Matthews said as he departed. "And you're trying to put it in another context."

Some saw the visit a different way. "He talks about it," Pennsylvania Democratic Committee executive director Mary Isenhour said about a Senate run against Republican Arlen Specter in 2010. "I think he's serious. It seems to be serious to me."

If it is, and Matthews' visit to the delegation Tuesday was an attempt to work the state's political heavy hitters, it appeared to work. He was twice singled out by speakers as he sat eating breakfast. And few in the room could miss the crowd that formed around the political commentator. Several politicos, including Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, swung by his seat to pay their respects.

But Matthews was coy when asked what he was doing there.

"I am here this morning because ... this is the most interesting state delegation there is and I want to find out how it is moving," he said. "This is the most important state. I've talked to people at the top of the Republican campaign and they have a check list. ... New Hampshire, Michigan and then Pennsylvania, that is the plan. If they get Pennsylvania, they win. That's what they think."

He continued: "Democrats have to hold this state. It is all about this state."

Asked repeatedly if he was considering a run for Senate, Matthews responded: "You know what I do for a living. I have this job."

The contract for that job, of course, expires next year.

by Rick Pearson

DENVER -- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says it's OK for Democrats to like the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Arizona Sen. John McCain. But, he says, you don't have to vote for him.

"One thing in politics--I think you can like all the candidates," Daley, the chairman of Illinois Democratic convention delegation, told the state's delegates.

"Sure we like, let's be realistic, Barack Obama's opponent. You like him. But you don't have to vote for him," Daley said. "We can like anyone, but when it comes to voting, you want to vote for the person that you truly believe in."

The mayor, hoping to soothe feelings from unhappy delegates supporting New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, noted, "We do like Hillary Clinton. We respect her for what she's accomplished."

Daley said it was time for Clinton supporters to "come back and join the ranks in supporting the candidate that won fairly, honestly and openly in the primary"

"I firmly believe that all those delegates are going to support with enthusiasn, with enthusiasm, working for Barack Obama," Daley said.

Daley again recounted his story of losing in 1983 to Harold Washington, the city's first African-American mayor, though with a twist.

"When I lost the elction, the next day I supported Harold Washington, the first African (sic) mayor of the city of Chicago," the current mayor said. "Life went on. Life did go on."

by Rick Pearson

DENVER -- The head of one of the country's most politically active unions acknowledged today that some of his rural members in key voting states fear casting a ballot for an African-American for president.

Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, used colorful language to describe racist attitudes against Obama as well as where union workers would find themselves if they don't win in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan.

"If we don't win those kinds of states, we're going to be in that--pardon my language, I know it's early--that proverbial s--t house for four more years. OK, sisters and brothers? That is where we will be," McEntee told members of Illinois' delegation to the Democratic National Convention at their morning breakfast meeting.

McEntee said that union members who say they can't vote for a black presidential contender need to measure Obama's labor record against that of Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

"You can't vote for Barack Obama because he's black? That's his color and that is bulls--t. That is absolute bulls--t," McEntee said in getting a standing ovation.

"We have to argue, fight our own members and we're gong to do it," the AFSCME union chief said.

McEntee urged Illinois Democrats to travel to battleground states to encourage union efforts on behalf of Obama.

"Your state, your leaders, your delegation has a responsibility that is larger than any others. People say, 'We don't know Barack Obama.' I don't know how long it takes to get to know somebody," the AFSCME chief said. "But you folks have to become true and real surrogates. I mean, you know him better than anybody."

by Amanda Erickson

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) works a few jobs.

There's his position as Senator, now his gig as running mate for presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-Ill.). And, it turns out, a stint teaching constitutional law at Wildener Law School in Delaware.

Roll Call reports that Biden is the only Senator who is also earning a salary as an adjunct university professor. He makes about $20,000, a figure that stayed the same even when he started team teaching his course.

He didn't break any rules, but it's still interesting to know that he's drawing a paycheck from a school that lobbies for money from Congress.

See the full story about Joe Biden as a teacher at rollcall.com.

by Jill Zuckman and updated with response.

PHOENIX - Speaking to the 90th convention of the American Legion this morning, Sen. John McCain accused Sen. Barack Obama of "confusion" about America's role in the world as he continued to pepper Obama with criticism during the Democrats' political convention in Denver.

McCain also launched a new television commercial based on one aired by Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary. Called "3 a.m." the ad asks who Americans want answering the phone in the White House during an international crisis.

"I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House," the ad quotes Clinton. "And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

During his own speech to the American Legion, McCain said the world still looks to the United States for leadership when a global threat occurs despite anti-American sentiment throughout the world. "They know the strength of America remains the greatest force for good on this earth," McCain said.

The Obama campaign, however, accused McCain of engaging in character assassination.

"The 'confusion' here is between John McCain's rhetoric that no one's love of country should be questioned and the reality of his campaign's daily, false, personal and detestable attacks on Senator Obama," spokesman Hari Sevugan said. "But it's not a surprising tactic from John McCain who is offering four more years of Karl Rove's playbook to distract from his plan for four more years of George Bush's failed policies, which have left America far less secure and shredded our alliances in the world."

McCain said Obama could have expressed confidence in America's leadership when he spoke in Berlin during his recent trip to the Middle East and Europe.

"He was the picture of confidence, in some ways," McCain said. "But confidence in oneself and confidence in one's country are not the same."

(Photo at right of McCain addressing the American League National Convention, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

by Mark Silva

DENVER - "You know, all of us in the heat of the campaign in primary say words we later regret,'' says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, commenting on the McCain campaign's use of Hillary Clinton's words against Barack Obama in a TV ad.

"In her own words...she is totally behind Senator Obama, and, she is asking her supporters to get on board with the Obama campaign...that Obama is far better than John McCain,'' Richardson told Chris Wallace in a session on FOX News Channel's Strategy Room this morning.

That McCain TV ad of Clinton criticizing Obama, with the announcer asking if this is the reason why Obama "passed over'' Clinton in the running mate selection, greets convention-goers in the mile-high city as they wake up the morning and turn on network TV.

Clinton has offered her own personal respone: "I do not approve of that message.''
Richardson has his own fence-mending to do with the Clintons, having joined Obama's campaign at a critical juncture in the primaries after having served President Bill Clinton's administration and carrying on as if they were good friends.

"With Bill Clinton, he is probably still ticked off with me, but that's ok,'' Richardson said today. "I did that endorsement because I thought Senator Obama was special. It was more important for me to deal with what's good for the country than what is good in my political interest."

Richardson maintains that this will be a well-fought contest, even in these Western states that have trended Republican in the past. "Senator McCain is a westerner, he knows the West,'' Richardson said. "We have got to introduce Senator Obama to the...Rocky Mountain West.... Obama is going to play very well in the West."

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Sen. Ted Kennedy signaled that his old party might be taking a new direction this year with his early endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama.

But with his appearance on stage at the Democratic National Convention last night, Kennedy's still-powerful voice, shaky around the edges and just a little short of the high notes in the midst of treatment for a malignant cancer, he reminded this party of every place it's been for the past few decades and where he still hopes to take it.

Kennedy invoked his own words from the 1980 convention, when he conceded the presidential nomination to Jimmy Carter, in which he spoke of the mission ahead..

"The work begins anew, the hope rises again and the dream lives on,'' Kennedy said last night.

And Kennedy, who had only recently left the hospital to make this convention appearance, pledged that he will stand with his party in January, when Obama is sworn in as president of the United States: "I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the U.S. Senate."

That sparked chants of "Teddy, Teddy, Teddy..."

When Kennedy first appeared, as Don Frederick notes in Top of the Ticket, state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon of Texas wiped tears from her eyes and called out in joy.

"When he came out my heart fluttered, she told The L.A. Times' James Rainey. "He represents the best in the Democratic Party and the best in the American people."

She added: "This is his moment in history, his moment to put a cap on his legacy. He saw someone he could pass the torch to and he wanted to be there to see it happen. It's a blessing."

She then danced and sang along as Kennedy took his curtain call to the tune of the song, "You're Still the One."

by Bay Fang

Just when many believed the crisis in the Caucasus had been averted, tensions between Moscow and Washington are cranking up again.

As Moscow formally recognized the independence of the breakaway territories at the center of its war with Georgia, the US dispatched military ships bearing aid to a port city still controlled by Russian troops.

Traveling in the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Moscow's move "regrettable," and said that its formal recognition of the territories "puts Russia in opposition to the Security Council resolution to which it is a party."

Speaking at a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Rice said the U.S. regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as "part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia," and that the move to change their status would be "dead on arrival" in the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia and the US are both permanent members

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov shot back that Russia was simply bowing to the will of the people by recognizing the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "Non-recognition by Russia, after all the Georgian leadership did, would not have been understood by the population of Russia or the population of the northern Caucasus," he said on a conference call with reporters, adding that 80 percent of Russians and a much higher percentage of those in the Northern Caucasus supported the independence of the disputed territories.

He added that there were no plans to integrate the territories into the Russian federation. "That is a hypothetical question, and we're not in the guessing business," he said in response to a question from a reporter. "What they wanted when they asked us is recognition as independent country."

(Shawn Adolph, left, and Tharin Gartrell. Mugshots courtesy of Aurora Police Department via AP)

by Mark Silva and updated

DENVER - Police this morning are publicly downplaying any organized threat that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have faced from three men arrested Sunday morning with weapons.

Authorities stopped a pickup truck which they said was swerving between lanes early Sunday morning. The driver of the rented vehicle was Tharin Gartrell, 29, a convicted felon wearing white supremacist tattoos.

Inside the truck, as the Top of the Ticket notes: two high-powered scoped rifles, ammunition, sighting scopes, radios, a cellphone, a bulletproof vest, wigs, drugs and fake IDs.

Authorities took Gartrell to his hotel, where another man was injured attempting to flee from Secret Service agents by jumping from a sixth-story window. Police arrested Nathan Johnson, 32, and Shawn Adolph, 33.

Johnson told KCNC-TV television station in Denver that other suspects had planned to kill Obama on the day he would accept the Democratic nomination for president at Mile High stadium.

"Looking back at it, I don't want to say yes, but I don't want to say no," Johnson said when asked if there was a plot to kill Obama.

The United States Attorney here, Troy Eid declined to elaborate on Monday but said there was no credible threat to the party's convention or to the freshman Illinois senator, who was campaigning in Kansas City Monday and traveling to Montana today.

Eids plans a news conference today.

See the Denver Post's account of the arrests.

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Add to the canons of political philosophers: Sly and the Family Stone.

Michelle Obama invoked their famous words from the rostrum of the Democratic National Convention here: "You can make it if you try.''

She spoke of the community in which she was raised and has worked, the community where her husband worked as a community organizer: "They were parents living paycheck to paycheck, grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income, men frustrated that they couldn't support their families after their jobs disappeared.

"Those folks weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work. They wanted to contribute,'' she said. "They believed, like you and I believe, that America should be a place where you can make it if you try.''

All together now (Sly and the Family Stone):

"You can make it if you try
You can make it if you try
Push a little harder
Think a little deeper
Don't let the plastic bring you down.''

by Mark Silva

DENVER - Barack Obama and John McCain are in a dead-heat in national polls.

Obama's campaign manager couldn't care less.

David Plouffe, one of the architects of Obama's surprise rise to the top of his party, suggests that he all but ignores the national polls. As Don Frederick, our colleague at Top of the Ticket relays the press briefing that Plouffe held, Obama's manager said:

"We don't pay attention to national polls.''

What they do pay attention to: The 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, a calculation that focuses instead on the 50-state contest., and, in the places where Obama shows the most potential for winning, the work of the campaign to spur a strong turnout of Obama voters. (The electoral map favors Obama at this stage.)

"We stay laser-focused on these two factors each and every day," Plouffe said.
This helps explain why Plouffe remains "pretty positive'' in his assessment of the race, Frederick notes -- "hand-wringing among some Democrats notwithstanding. ''

Pollsters generally base their sampling group on past voting patterns, Plouffe notes, but the electorate in 2008 "is going to be changed in some fundamental ways from 2004."

Plouffe also offers this concession about their Republican rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona: "McCain has more strength with independent voters than most Republicans. We as a party can be bunned out about that, but we've got to deal with it."