I am honored to be here tonight to support Barack Obama. And to warm up the
crowd for Joe Biden, though as you’ll soon see, he doesn’t need any help from
me. I love Joe Biden, and America will too.

What a year we Democrats have had. The primary began with an all-star line up
and came down to two remarkable Americans locked in a hard fought contest to the
very end. The campaign generated so much heat it increased global warming.

In the end, my candidate didn’t win. 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.

I’m not so grateful for the chance to speak in the wake of her magnificent
address last night. But I’ll do my best.

Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect
Barack Obama.

That makes two of us.

Actually that makes 18 million of us - because, like Hillary, I want all of you
who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

Here’s why.

Former President Bill Clinton made the objective of his convention speech tonight clear in his opening words: “I am here first to support Barack Obama,” he said. “And second, I’m here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden.”

The 42nd president of the U.S. received the warmest welcome yet of the Democratic convention speakers. He was greeted by about two minutes of sustained applause and cheers of “Bill! Bill! Bill!” as the delegates in the convention hall waived American flags.

Anticipation was high for Clinton’s speech as the convention has been punctuated of stories of lingering tensions between the Obama and Clinton camps. Sen. Hillary Clinton has done her part — she offered a rousing address to the convention Tuesday night. Earlier today, she formally released her delegates, and later offered the motion to suspend the roll call vote and nominate Obama by acclamation.

Associated Press and Landov

Through the Years: Bill Clinton has addressed delegates at every Democratic National Convention since 1988. (From top left, the conventions of 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.)

Tonight, it was Bill’s turn. “Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama — that makes two of us,” the former president said. He sought to underscore Obama’s commander-in-chief credentials, and implicitly took to his defense against John McCain’s attacks that the Democratic nominee is not ready.

“Barack Obama is ready to lead and restore American leadership in the world,” he said. “Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.”

He said Obama’s “proven understanding, insight, and good instincts,” combined with Biden’s “experience and wisdom,” would ensure that “America will have the national security leadership we need.”

While Clinton criticized “the Republicans” for their record on health care, the economy, and the war, he did not refer to McCain by name: “The Republicans will nominate a good man who served his country heroically and suffered terribly in Vietnam. He loves his country every bit as much as we all do. As a senator, he has shown his independence on several issues,” Clinton said.

“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.”

Clinton also drew a parallel between himself and Obama: “My fellow Democrats, 16 years ago, you gave me the profound honor to lead our party to victory and to lead our nation to a new era of peace and broadly shared prosperity. Together we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. Sound familiar?” he said, “It didn’t work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won’t work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.”

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You can only conduct party business so many hours a day. So delegates are finding plenty of time to play tourist.

And what tourists!

As they stroll the streets of Denver, convention credentials slung around their necks, Obama buttons pinned proudly to lapels, delegates and others affiliated with the DNC are snapping photos at every opportunity. They’re taking pictures of the protesters, all in orange, who stand next to signs opposing the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More pictures of the Code Pink antiwar protesters, in pink negligees and bright pink wigs. They’re taking pictures of Barack Obama supporters with particularly creative shirts. Of Hillary Clinton supporters waving signs on street corners. Of convention security.

Eager to take it all in and memorialize it forever, a group of convention-goers stopped a squadron of Denver police on Wednesday afternoon outside the security perimeter. The police have been driving around hanging off the sides of white SUVs, dressed in full riot gear. At this moment, however, they were resting in the shade. The officers gamely agreed to be photographed and stood there, smiling, as one visitor after another jumped into the middle of the squadron to pose with law enforcement. “Don’t smile,” the group photographer instructed the cops. “Look serious.” They obliged.

Down the street, another convention tourist was taking pictures of a peanut vendor. The vendor, a young woman, had a particularly melodic pitch as she barked out: “Peanuts, one dollar! Pistachios, one bag for $2!” Admiring the sing-song, another tourist took out her video camera. The vendor noticed and stopped. “Do you want me to start that again?” she asked. The tourist nodded.

So the vendor backed up and gave it her all, as the camera rolled: “Peanuts, one dollar! Pistachios, one bag for $2!”

If Sen. Barack Obama hopes to win Virginia in November he’s going to have to find a way to relate to the rural voter, says former Virginia governor and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner.

Throughout the South Side of Virginia, Southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, Obama will be greeted by the blue-collar voters that he has struggled with throughout the election.

On the upside, running mate Sen. Joe Biden can help him with that. Biden is an easier figure for them to relate to, Warner said. Plus, Biden has respect on both sides of the aisle, so he has the ability to get things done.

“He’s kind of that unusual mix of somebody who has been in Washington forever …but he’s never really been fully caught up in the whole insider Washington game,” Warner told a group of Wall Street Journal reporters and editors.

Warner,who gave the keynote address to the convention Tuesday night before Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke, is the clear favorite for Virginia’s open Senate seat.

“I remember when I first started to run here, I was the high-tech guy from Northern Virginia spending enormous amounts of time in South Side and Southwest Virginia,” Warner said. “There was at first a suspicion, ‘hey is this guy the real deal or is it just the equivalent of a political drive-by?’ And I think with time people understood this is something I’m passionate about.”

Based on his experience, Warner gave a rundown of what Obama will have to do to seal the deal in the state’s most conservative areas, which might have more affinity for Republican candidate John McCain. Spending time there is particularly important for “somebody who has already been caricatured by the media so much and misrepresented,” Warner said. And “while Sen. Obama may not close the deal with folks it’s not like Sen. McCain has either,” he said.

Obama also has to show people the “takeaways” that will come out of his policies. “If you think back to the Clinton ‘92 campaign, you may not have known all of the economic policies, but you knew he was going to come out and focus on the economy. You knew there were ideas about national service. There were a couple of takeaways. And I think this notion of driving down gas prices, grappling with kids going to college, the question of — particularly in these communities – how do you not have to move away to find a world class job? Is all the prosperity going to be in our major metropolitan areas? I think he’s gotta connect that.”

And finally, looking past Election Day and after an increasingly negative general election, there’s the potential for the Senate – torn between colleagues Obama and McCain – to be an even bigger mess. Warner, always the optimist, said he doesn’t expect the Senate to end up more divided.

“One of the things I talk about it trying to build a bipartisan group of radical centrists that could say no to both ends and people say ‘Ahhh, Warner, you’re crazy that can’t happen. It just won’t happen.’ I don’t accept it,” Warner said. “You’re basically saying that if you accept that then, short of a massive majority from one party or the other, you’re talking about continuing institutional gridlock, and you’re basically saying the Senate’s going to be a failed institution. That’s not where I want to go work.”

Barack Obama arrived in Denver on Wednesday afternoon, and though he isn’t scheduled to appear until Thursday night, his campaign hinted that there was a good chance he would make an appearance at the Pepsi Center tonight.

Obama landed and was whisked away to his hotel, just blocks away from the Pepsi Center, as delegates were beginning the roll call vote that ended with Hillary Clinton suspending the vote and calling for his nomination by acclamation. Obama was at his hotel with his wife, Michele, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, as well as extended family when he learned that he was officially the nominee.

The Illinois senator was still putting the finishing touches on his acceptance speech Wednesday, and had yet to take a planned walk-through of Invesco Stadium, where he’ll deliver his address Thursday. Obama wrote much of the speech himself and began working on a draft two weeks ago during his vacation in Hawaii.

“It is now and it probably always has been the case that he’s the best speechwriter in the group,” top strategist David Axelrod told reporters as the candidate’s plane traveled south to Denver from Billings, Mont. Obama had read other convention acceptance speeches going back to President Franklin Roosevelt, said Axelrod, and he singled out three as particularly inspirational: Bill Clinton’s 1992 address, Ronald Reagan’s 1980 speech, and John F. Kennedy’s address in 1960.

Axelrod wouldn’t sketch out too many details of the speech, but made one promise: “It’s going to be good.”

Hillary Clinton has taken a starring role in the John McCain campaign in recent days, using her as the centerpiece of two advertisements aimed at wooing her supporters across party lines.

The trend continued on Wednesday, when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis used the New York senator’s speech from Tuesday evening in a fund-raising pitch to donors.

In an email to supporters, Davis asked for their support and used Clinton in his plea. “What you didn’t hear is her acclaim for John McCain,” Davis wrote, “a man she knows is prepared to lead as our next president.”

Davis calls Clinton a “long-time admirer” of McCain’s and repeats past comments Clinton has made about newly minted Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

“Please join the constantly growing group of supporters — of all party affiliations — who say, ‘John McCain is ready to lead,’” Davis wrote.

The email also addresses the limitations the campaign faces by agreeing to participate in the federal public financing system — a commitment Obama made as well but has since abandoned.

The McCain campaign will receive $84 million in federal funding and, in exchange, must abide by spending limits. Davis portrayed the situation as McCain facing an insurmountable uphill climb against Obama’s record-setting fund-raising ability — despite the fact that McCain staffers have privately taken heart in the slowing down of his donations and celebrated their own gains.

Even so, the email reads: “Beginning September 1st, our campaign is limited in the amount of money we can spend, while Senator Obama will spend whatever he wants to defeat us.”

Conventions and capitalism go hand-in-hand – as a stroll down Denver’s 16th Street Mall makes clear.

The pedestrian mall is packed with vendors selling every possible souvenir. It’s hard to imagine how many items can be emblazoned with Sen. Barack Obama’s image – until you see it for yourself.

There are pins and buttons aplenty, of course.

But also: An Obama doll, for $15. (Or not a doll, exactly, but as the package proclaims, “An Action Figure We Can Believe in.”) An Obama Bling T-shirt, studded with rhinestones, for $25. Obama playing cards. Obama incense. Obama dish towels. Even Obama “On Our Way to the White House” bottled water, priced at $2 on a hot afternoon.

From a booth getting little traffic, Justin Sylvestor peddled brown canvas shoes — imprinted with a Democratic donkey and the word “VOTE.” The hook: The manufacturer, Toms, would donate a pair of shoes to needy kids for every pair sold for full price of $40. Sylvestor thought that might go over well with the liberals.

And if not? He plans to be hawking outside next week’s Republican National Convention as well.

“We have a Republican shoe, too,” Sylvestor said. “And we have them for the undecideds, too. One shoe’s a donkey, the other one an elephant.”