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.''

You know, folks, my dad used to have an expression. He'd say: "you know you're a success when he turns and looks at his son or daughter and knows that they turned out better than he did." I am a success. I am a hell of a success.

Beau, I love you. I am so proud of you. I'm so proud of the son you've become. I'm so proud of the father you are. And I'm so proud of my son Hunter, my daughter Ashley, and my wife Jill, the only one who leaves me both breathless and speechless at the same time.

It is an honor to share this stage tonight with President Clinton. A man I think brought this country so far along that I only pray that we can repeat it. And last night, it was moving to watch Hillary, one of our great leaders of our party, a woman who has made history and will continue to make history: a colleague, my friend Senator Hillary Clinton.

And I am truly honored to live in a country with the bravest warriors in the world. And I'm honored to represent our first state―my state― the state of Delaware.

Since I've never been called a man of few words, let me say this as simply as I can: Yes. Yes, I accept your nomination to run and serve with Barack Obama, the next President of the United States of America.

Let me make this pledge to you right here and now. For every American who is trying to do the right thing, for all those people in government who are honoring their pledge to uphold the law and honor the Constitution, no longer will you hear the eight most dreaded words in the English language: "The Vice President's office is on the phone."

Barack and I took very different journeys to this destination, but we share a common story. Mine began in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then Wilmington, Delaware. My dad, who fell on hard economic times, always told me: "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up. Get up." I was taught that by my dad, and God, I wish that my dad was here tonight, but I am so grateful that my mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, is here tonight. Mom, I love you. You know my mom taught her children―all the children who flocked to our house―that you are defined by your sense of honor, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. She believes that bravery lives in every heart and her expectation is that it will be summoned.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As a child I stuttered, and she lovingly would look at me and told me: "Joey, it's because you're so bright you can't get the thoughts out quickly enough." When I was not as well dressed as the other kids, she told me: "Joey, you're so handsome honey, you're so handsome." And when I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, and this is the God's truth, she sent me back out the street and told me: "bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day." And that's what I did.

After the accident, she told me, "Joey, God sends no cross that you cannot bear." And when I triumphed, my mother was quick to remind me it was because of others.

My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you.

My parents taught us to live our faith, and to treasure our families We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they just try hard enough.

That was America's promise. For those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream.

But today that American dream feels as if it's slowly slipping away. I don't have to tell you that. You feel it every single day in your own lives.

I've never seen a time when Washington has watched so many people get knocked down without doing anything to help them get back up. Almost every night, I take the train home to Wilmington, sometimes very late. As I sit there in my seat and I look out my window and I see the flickering lights of the homes we pass by, I can almost hear the conversation their having at their kitchen table after they put their kids to bed. Like millions of Americans, they're asking questions as ordinary as they are profound. Questions they never ever thought they'd have to ask themselves:

* Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?

* Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars just to fill up the gas tank?

* How in God's name with winter coming, how're we gonna heat the home?

* Another year, no raise?

* Did you hear? Did you hear they may be cutting our health care at the company?

* Now, now we owe more on the house than it's worth. How in God's name are we going to send the kids to college?

* How are we gonna retire?

You know, folks, that's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the America we'll continue to get if George―excuse me if John McCain is elected president of the United States of America. Freudian slip! Freudian slip! And folks, these are not isolated discussions among families down on their luck. These are common stories among middle-class people who've worked hard their whole life, played by the rules on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays.

That promise is the promise of America. It defines who we are as a people. And now it's in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn't get it. Barack Obama gets it though. Like many of us in this room, like many of us in this hall, Barack worked his way up. His is the great American story. You know, I believe the measure of a man is not the road he travels; it's the choices he's made along that road.

And ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama could have done anything after he graduated from college. With all his talent and promise, he could have written his own ticket to Wall Street. But what did he choose to do? He chose to go to Chicago. The South Side of Chicago. There―there in the South Side of Chicago he met men and women who had lost their jobs. Their neighborhood was devastated when the local steel plant closed. Their dreams had to be deferred. Their self-esteem gone. And ladies and gentlemen, he made their lives the work of his life. That's what you do when you're raised by a single mom, who worked, went to school and raised two kids on her own. That's how you come to believe, to the very core of your being, that work is more than a paycheck. It's dignity. It's respect. It's about whether or not you can look your children in the eye and say: we're going to be all right.

Because Barack made that choice, 150 more children and parents have health care in Illinois. He fought to make that happen. And because Barack made that choice, working families in Illinois pay less taxes and more people have moved from welfare to the dignity of work. And he got it done.

And when he came to Washington, when he came to Washington, John and I watched with amazement how he hit the ground running, leading the fight to pass the most sweeping ethics reform in a generation. He reached across party lines to pass a law that helps keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. And then he moved Congress and the president to give our wonderful wounded veterans the care and dignity they deserve.

You know, you can learn a lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him, seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind, but even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart. I watched how Barack touched people, how he inspired them, and I realized he had tapped into the oldest belief in America: We don't have to accept a situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it. And change it―and change it is exactly what Barack Obama will do. That's what he'll do for this country.

You know, John McCain is my friend, and I know you hear that phrase used all the time in politics. I mean it. John McCain is my friend. We've traveled the world together. It's a friendship that goes beyond politics. And the personal courage and heroism demonstrated by John still amazes me.

But I profoundly―I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country, from Afghanistan to Iraq. From Amtrak to veterans. You know, John thinks, John thinks that during the Bush years "we've made great economic progress." I think it's been abysmal. And in the Senate, John has voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time. And that is very hard to believe. And when John McCain proposes $200 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, $1 billion alone for just eight of the largest companies, but no, none, no relief for 100 million American families, that's not change; that's more of the same. Even today, as oil companies post the biggest profits in history―nearly a half trillion dollars in the last five years―John wants to give them another $4 billion in tax breaks.

That's not change, that's the same. And during the same time John voted again and again against incentives for renewable energy: solar, wind, biofuels. That's not change; that's more of the same. Millions of Americans have seen their jobs go offshore, yet John continues to support corporations that send them there. 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.

The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader. A leader who can change, change the change that everybody knows we need. Barack Obama is going to deliver that change. Because I want to tell you. Barack Obama will reform our tax code. He will cut taxes for 95% of the American people who draw a pay check. That's the change we need. Barack Obama, Barack Obama will transform our economy by making alternative energy a national priority and in the process creating 5 million new jobs and finally finally freeing us from the grip of foreign oil. That's the change we need.

Barack Obama knows that any country that out teaches us today, will out compete us tomorrow. That's why he'll invest in the next generation of teachers and why he'll make college more affordable. That's the change we need. Barrack Obama will bring down health care cost by $2,500 for the average family and at long last deliver affordable, accessible health care for every American. That's the change we need. Barack will put more cops on the street, put security back in social security and he'll never ever ever give up until we achieve equal pay for women. That's the change we need.

As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. And for the last seven years, the administration has failed to face the biggest the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, china and India's great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror.

Ladies and gentlemen in recent years and in recent days we once again see the consequences of the neglect of this neglect of Russia challenging the very freedom of a new democratic country of Georgia. Barack and I will end that neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its action and we will help Georgia rebuild. I have been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, this administrations policy has been an abysmal failure. America cannot afford 4 more years of this failure.

And now, now despite being complacent in the catastrophic foreign policy, John McCain says Barrack Obama, Barrack Obama is not ready to protect our national security. Now let me ask you this. Whose judgment do you trust? Should you trust the judgment of John McCain when he said only 3 years ago, "Afghanistan-we don't read about it anymore in the papers, because it succeeded" or do you believe Barack Obama who said a year ago "we need to send 2 more combat battalions to Afghanistan."

The fact of the matter is, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban- the people who have actually attacked us on 9/11, they've regrouped in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and are plotting new attacks. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has echoed Barack's call for more troops and John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was right. Should we trust John McCain's judgment? When he rejects- when he rejected talking with Iran and asked what is there to talk about? Or Barack Obama who said we must talk and must make clear to Iran that it must change.

Now, after 7 years of denial, even the Bush Administration recognizes that we should talk to Iran because that the best way to ensure our security. Again and again John McCain has been wrong and Barack Obama has been right. Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says- when he says that we can't have no timelines to withdraw our troops from Iraq-that we must say indefinitely or should we listen to Barack Obama who says shift the responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home. Now, after 6 long years, the administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home. John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was right.

Again, again and again on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama has been proven right. Folks, remember when the world used to trust us, when they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they'll look at us again. They'll trust us again and we'll be able to lead again. Folks, Jill and I are truly honored to join Michelle and Barack on this journey.

When I look at their young children―and when I look at my grandchildren―I realize why I'm here. I'm here for their future. I am here for everyone I grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington. I am here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly line workers―the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures.

Our greatest presidents―from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy―they all challenged us to embrace change. Now, it's our responsibility to meet that challenge.

Millions of Americans have been knocked down. And this is the time as Americans, together, we get back up. Back up together. Our debt to our parents and grandparents too great, our obligation to our children is too sacred.

These are extraordinary times. This is an extraordinary election. The American people are ready. I'm ready. Barack is ready. This is his time. This is our time. This is America's time.

God Bless America, and may God protect our Troops! Thank you!''

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.''

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.

In Ramadi, the situation was once so dire that American troops found themselves dodging bullets as they went about reconstruction efforts. And in one of the single deadliest attacks on U.S. troops, 14 Marine reservists were killed in August 2005 in Haditha when a roadside bomb hit their armored troop carrier.

But with the U.S. troop surge and U.S. commanders persuading Sunni tribal leaders to turn on Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters, the once-restive Anbar province has made a sharp turnaround.

Conway, who has long lobbied for Marines to shift their responsibility to Afghanistan, repeated Wednesday that reducing their presence in Iraq would allow them to bolster the U.S. military and NATO's effort against the Taliban in Afghanistan, where violence and coalition casualties have surpassed those in Iraq in recent months.

Conway said there are now only two or three insurgent attacks per day in Anbar.

"Quite frankly, young Marines join our corps to go fight for their country," Conway said. "They are doing a very good job of this nation-building business [in Iraq]. But it's our view that if there is a stiffer fight going someplace else ... then that's where we need to be."

Nonetheless, there are signs that the gains made in Anbar could be undone.

Perhaps more important to the turnaround in Anbar than the U.S. troop buildup was the creation of the Awakening councils, a movement whose beginnings preceded the troop surge in 2007 and led to the formation of security groups overseen by Sunni tribal chiefs and financed by the U.S. military. Those groups turned on Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters who had taken root in the province.

U.S. forces have been paying the nearly $300-per-month salary for each of the patrolmen in the groups--known as the Sons of Iraq--with the agreement that the Iraqi government would move at least 20 percent of the men into the Iraqi security forces and other Iraqi civil service jobs.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Shiite Iraqi government leaders have resisted bringing the Sunni security forces into the fold, saying that many of the Sons of Iraq not so long ago were backers--if not armed members--of the insurgency.

Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said last week that only 2,000 of the nearly 101,000 members of Sons of Iraq had been moved into the Iraqi security forces thus far. Petraeus has been critical of the Maliki government as being too slow to integrate the Sons of Iraq.

James Phillips, a Middle East analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said the progress in Anbar is "remarkable." But he noted that the situation in the province and other areas with significant Sunni populations "could deteriorate into a Hobbesian war of all against all" if steps aren't taken to integrate the Sons of Iraq into Iraqi security forces or civil service.

"There are valid reasons for the Maliki government to be concerned, but they need to realize that the political kaleidoscope has been altered into something that is favorable for all of Iraq," Phillips he said.

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.

DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is organizing its supporters tonight to confront Tribune-owned WGN radio in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air.

"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 Ayers, a former 1960s radical.

The magazine had been blocked in its initial attempts to obtain records from the University of Illinois at Chicago regarding the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Obama chaired and Ayers co-founded. The school later reserved its position and made the records available Tuesday.

Obama's campaign is urging 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 the headquarters declined the request.

The show's producer said the calls dropped off after the show's first hour. He did not have a count of calls, but said it was "non-stop."

Obama's campaign has launched similar offensives against stations that have run campaign ads that it did not like.

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.

"His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives,'' he said. "He has shown a clear grasp of our foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair our badly strained military.

"His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park....

"With Joe Biden's experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama's proven understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need.

"Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States,

"He will work for an America with more partners and fewer adversaries. He will rebuild our frayed alliances and revitalize the international institutions which help to share the costs of the world's problems and to leverage our power and influence. He will put us back in the forefront of the world's fight to reduce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and to stop global warming.

"He will continue and enhance our nation's global leadership in an area in which I am deeply involved, the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria, including a renewal of the battle against HIV/AIDS here at home. He will choose diplomacy first and military force as a last resort. But in a world troubled by terror; by trafficking in weapons, drugs and people; by human rights abuses; by other threats to our security, our interests, and our values, when he cannot convert adversaries into partners, he will stand up to them.

"Barack Obama also will not allow the world's problems to obscure its opportunities. Everywhere, in rich and poor countries alike, hardworking people need good jobs; secure, affordable healthcare, food, and energy; quality education for their children; and economically beneficial ways to fight global warming.

"These challenges cry out for American ideas and American innovation. When Barack Obama unleashes them, America will save lives, win new allies, open new markets, and create new jobs for our people.

"Most important, Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power....

"The choice is clear,'' Clinton said.

"The Republicans will nominate a good man who served our country heroically and suffered terribly in Vietnam. He loves our country every bit as much as we all do.

"As a senator, he has shown his independence on several issues. But on the two great questions of this election, how to rebuild the American Dream and how to restore America's leadership in the world, he still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years, a philosophy we never had a real chance to see in action until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades were implemented.

"They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 and a half million falling into poverty - and millions more losing their health insurance.

"Now, in spite of all the evidence, their candidate is promising more of the same: More tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy. More band-aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families and increase the number of uninsured. More going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.

"They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more. Let's send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm.''

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.

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.

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.

"As we stated before, these were not records we had access to, control over, or the ability to release, so we reviewed them like everybody else," said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. The Challenge "was a bipartisan board, funded by former Nixon ambassador and Reagan friend Walter Annenberg, that worked with Republicans and Democrats in Illinois to fund education programs."

And from the Republican National Committee:

"The RNC does have a number of people on the ground reviewing documents related to Barack Obama's relationship with unrepentant terrorist, William Ayers," spokesman Danny Diaz wrote in an e-mail. "It is our duty to inform the public about this very troubling friendship."

The UIC records show that Obama and Ayers attended board meetings, one retreat and at least one news conference together as the Annenberg Challenge program got under way. The two continued to attend meetings together after the program began.

Ayers, now a UIC education professor, was a founder of the Weather Underground, a radical 1960s anti-war group.

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.''

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.

Anderson Cooper will be pulling double duty tonight, broadcasting live and making sure you don't steal the convention tchotchkeys.

Tankersley: Indeed. So how did that Hillary Clinton speech come across in your living room last night?

Oliphant: Very orange-y. Had to check the HDTV settings. She really wears those pastels.

Tankersley: Rocks those pastels, I think you mean.

Oliphant: Yes, thanks, Gen Y. Our 18-32 demos are soaring thanks to you.

Tankersley: Any thoughts on the substance of the speech? Did she do enough to sell folks on Obama?

Oliphant: Uh.

Tankersley: You watched baseball instead, didn't you?

Oliphant: I watched at least 15 minutes of it The good 15 minutes. The ones where she kept saying KEEP GOING. Which was an unfortunate message if someone had just flipped the channel to her.

I thought Hillary was very effective. But here is the thing. She's getting praise for, essentially, as one of my friends told me, not burning the convention hall to the ground.

Tankersley: Why shouldn't she? Plenty of her supporters would have loved nothing more than that. She also could have pulled the "I know you're with Barack now, but call me!" card, and she didn't. So should you penalize her for that?

Oliphant: No, but if she wanted any future among the rank and file, she had to do what she did. And being the pro that she is, she did it with a smile and a few bon mots. But I'm not going to give her extra credit for sword-swallowing her ambition.

Tankersley: Ok then, Professor. (Although you've always seemed a bit more Skipper to me -- and no Gilligan jokes here.) So what's it going to take for Bill Clinton to earn an A from you tonight?

Oliphant: The Big Dog's gotta eat!

Sorry.

I don't know. This whole thing about Bill Clinton and Obama has been heated up into a telenovela. All that's missing is for Clinton to rip the buttons of his shirt off and shout "¡ Dios mio! ¡Consiga lejos de ella!"

Tankersley: Well, it's either frostier than a cold Avalanche Amber or it's one great dramatic ploy, designed to maximize Bill's hero turn.

Oliphant: I think it's interesting that basically--and I have read especially David Maraniss and Maureen Dowd today on it--that we in the media can take all of the issues of global import at play -- the war, the economy, hell, even the election itself , and instead transform this all into a small-scale version of "High School Musical."

Tankersley: People love "High School Musical."

Oliphant: Don't get me started. Speaking of which, and there really is a transition to be had here, as you know, while you have been Dancing with the Stars, I have been taking care of my small daughter. Which means a lot of Disney Channel, a lot of movies about myths and fairy tails: "Cinderella," "Little Mermaid" . . . . And as I mentioned, I have been thinking a lot about JFK.

Remember Bill Clinton talking about the Obama Fairy Tale? So, we at the convention we have myths, legends and fairy tales. I'll leave it to others to say who is what.

Tankersley: Where are you going with this?

Oliphant: Some commentators said this week that Monday marked the handoff of the moral leadership of the party from the Kennedys to the Obamas -- basically implying the Clintons never held it. Do you agree? Can we jump straight from the myth of Camelot to the myth of Obama? A leap from One Shining Moment to the next?

Tankersley: Damn -- give you an empty city and a three-year-old and you go all philosopher on me. I think the short answer is no, for a couple of reasons. One, Obama hasn't won the White House yet, and he could very well not. Two, the Clintons -- through political success and 90s nostalgia -- own arguably the largest single wing of the Democratic Party right now. Obama only beat them because he unified other, smaller wings.

"Hillary, hand him the goblet of leadership. Hillary. . . ."

Oliphant: But someone no less than Joe Biden said the same thing to me last year. He said that while Clinton was a success, the party lost ground in every realm during his presidency: Congress, the states, etc. He said that while voters embraced Clinton, they didn't embrace the party.

Tankersley: The truth comes out. This whole exercise was one more excuse for you to brag on your Joe Biden cred. So, what do you expect from him tonight? Rock Star, "Camp Rock" or something with the word rock in it that someone else wrote and Biden cribbed?

Oliphant: Don't get me started on Camp Rock. I like the title song from it. WE ROCK. WE ROCK. WE ROCK. Paging Lerner and Lowe. Stat.

I think Biden will do fine. He's good at the old-fashioned, pound the dias, kitchen-table speeches. He'll hit the economy hard. It's Bill Clinton that has all the pressure on him.

If he is anything less than sensational, he will be accused of sandbagging Obama, of sabotaging him. The said that about him this spring, when he was campaigning for his wife!

Tankersley: I'll say this -- people here are anxious to see Bill. Probably more than they're excited for Biden. But there isn't the buzz about either of them that there was pre-Hillary last night.

Oliphant: Really? Because of Hillary herself, or because they hoped her minions would lock the arena doors and she would come out in fatigues and declare it the Year Zero?

Disney and the Khmer Rouge, together at last!

Tankersley: I think people were mostly hoping she and Mark Warner would lead the hall in a chorus of "We rock!"

Oliphant:Finally. Doubletake makes its play for the tweens! WE ROCK WE ROCK WE ROCK.*

* Here are the full lyrics to "Camp Rock." Obama camp, still looking for a theme song for Thursday night?

Intro
Cause we rock
We rock, we rock on
We rock, we rock on

Chorus
Raise your hands up in the air and scream
We're finding our voice followin our dreams
We rock (we rock)
We rock we rock we rock on
Nobody in the world's gonna bring us down
The louder we go well the better we sound (we sound)
We rock
We rock we rock we rock on
We rock, we rock, we rock on.
We rock, we rock.
CAMP ROCK!

BONUS VIDEO FOOTAGE: Escena de telenovela el Candidato.