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.''

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.

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 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.

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.''

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.

McCain reportedly considered Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, among others.

Palin is a social conservative who is strongly opposed to abortion and same sex marriage. In addition, she is pro-gun and wildly popular in Alaska.

As governor, she has raised taxes on the oil industry, pushed ethics legislation amidst corruption investigation of Alaska lawmakers and limited requests for congressional earmarks after Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" made the state a national laughingstock.

"We've got to make sure the rest of the United States doesn't believe the only thing going on in Alaska is FBI probes and corruption trials," Palin told the Associated Press last year.

In Palin McCain has chosen someone with no experience on the national stage and no foreign policy experience. But she is a reformer, popular with conservatives and is considered tough enough to deal with what may come.

In the Vice Presidential debate, however, she will go up against Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has personal relationships with heads of state and other world leaders.

With voters concerned about McCain's age and his history of skin cancer, it remains to be seen whether they will be reassured by a woman with little to no experience on the federal stage who is a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Bill Burton, Sen. Barack Obama's spokesman, derided McCain's choice.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," Burton said. "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."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called McCain's choice "a hail Mary pass."

"It is a real role of the dice and shows how John McCain, Karl Rove et al realize what a strong position the Obama-Biden team and Democrats in general are in in this election," Schumer said. "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. I particularly look forward to the Biden-Palin debate in Missouri."

Rep. Jim Clyburn, the House Democratic Whip, told South Carolina ETV Radio that the pick was "risky" and would prove to be as embarrassing to McCain as Dan Quayle was to former President Bush.

"I do believe that McCain has to do something to reshuffle the cards, shake up the establishment, do something unexpected and Governor Palin...has all the kinds of things that McCain might see as a way to shake things up," Clyburn said. "I think it would be something similar to Dan Quayle...Dan Quayle proved to be sort of an embarrassment as a campaigner. Being thrust on a national stage like that could be very tough."

Clyburn also compared the choice to Walter Mondale picking Geraldine Ferraro, a member of Congress who became the first woman on a national ticket, which he said was "absolutely awful."

"And so I just think that it is very risky for McCain to do this, but it may be all he has left," Clyburn said.

But Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius Anuzis said he is excited about the pick.

"She will strengthen Senator McCain's appeal to Reagan Democrats, and supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton, who are looking for a president who has the experience and temperament to be commander-in-chief," Anuzis said.

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.

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.

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)

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."

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!!!

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.

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)

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.