McCain's Running Mate Palin takes Center Stage

ST. PAUL, Minn. - After two days of silence, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will step to center stage at the Republican National Convention to prove to delegates that she can help John McCain win the White House despite distracting questions about her family life and qualifications.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, once McCain's rival for the GOP presidential nomination, was to deliver the convention's keynote address Wednesday. Both Palin, 44, and McCain, 72, also were to be officially voted onto the GOP presidential ticket by convention delegates.

Republicans hoped Palin's speech — to be delivered before a nationwide television audience Wednesday night — would sell voters on her candidacy despite questions about her qualifications and the thoroughness of McCain's selection process, to say nothing of the continuing distractions involving her family and her brief tenure as governor.

The addition of Palin to the ticket has excited Republicans here and across the country. She has earned a reputation for taking on entrenched interests in Alaska and is staunchly pro-gun and anti-abortion.

But the stunning disclosure Monday that Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant — and a continuing drip of potentially embarrassing details — had knocked the convention off message before a rousing program Tuesday night.

Speakers extolled McCain as a war hero and maverick senator while blasting Obama as an untested liberal. The 47-year-old Illinois senator is seeking to become the first black president.

"Democrats present a history-making nominee for president. History-making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee ever to run for president," former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said as delegates roared with delight.

Palin, who has been in St. Paul since Sunday but out of sight, has a chance Wednesday to speak above the media din and present herself directly to voters as a strong-willed reformer and a solid conservative with appeal to women, including supporters of failed Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The convention returned, mostly, to normal Tuesday after its opening session was cut short as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf Coast. With damage from Gustav relatively light, the political speeches began, with President Bush calling McCain "ready to lead this nation."

Thompson, a longtime ally of McCain whose own campaign for the White House flamed out early this year, tossed chunk after chunk of rhetorical red meat to the delegates.

"Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit," Thompson said.

But the media focus on Palin's difficulties won't go away, particularly since Bristol Palin and the unborn child's father, 18-year-old Levi Johnston, were to attend Wednesday's session.

Republicans across the party defended Palin, who in addition to her daughter's pregnancy is under investigation by a state legislative panel over whether she had Alaska's public safety commissioner fired after he refused to dismiss a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

"I haven't seen anything that comes out about her that in any way troubles me or shakes my confidence in her," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the party's presidential nomination this year.

The prime spot in Tuesday evening's lineup went to Connecticut Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman — whose vote presently gives Democrats control of the Senate — who enthusiastically endorsed McCain and Palin.

"When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, when Barack Obama was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground," Lieberman said, "John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion."

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Lieberman "can give all the partisan speeches he wants, but as the American people have made very clear, the last thing this country needs is another four years of the same old failed Bush-McCain policies of the past."

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Barack Obama speech watched by 38.4m Americans

Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention pulled in a bigger US TV audience than the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, this year's American Idol final and Oscars coverage.

Latest Nielsen ratings figures show that Thursday night's speech, in which Obama accepted the Democrat presidential nomination, pulled in a total of 38.4 million viewers in the key 10pm hour across various channels that covered the event live.

Cable network CNN was the best performing of any of the channels covering it, beating the main broadcast networks.

By comparison, last month's Olympics opening ceremony attracted 34.2 million, the American Idol final in May pulled in 21.7 million and the February Oscars broadcast to 31.6 million.

However, each of these events was only live on one US channel - the Olympics on NBC, American Idol on Fox and the Oscars on ABC.

CNN's coverage was 1.5 million viewers ahead of its nearest rival, attracting 8.1 million.

ABC pulled in a total of 6.6 million, NBC attracted 6.1 million and CBS 4.7 million.

Fox News picked up 4.2 million, MSNBC had 4.1 million, while PBS drew 3.5 million viewers.

Obama's speech was also a much bigger draw than John Kerry's 2004 Democrat presidential candidate acceptance speech, pulling in 14 million more viewers.

The Republican presidential nominee John McCain is due to give his acceptance speech this week.

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Obama curtails campaign to watch Gustav

Barack Obama urged hundreds of thousands of supporters Monday to donate to the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Gustav. The Democratic presidential nominee scaled back a Labor Day speech to unions in an effort to keep the focus on the Gulf Coast.

Obama planned to finish his campaign schedule Monday with stops in Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states the campaign views as possible wins, before heading home to Chicago to monitor the situation and decide his schedule for the rest of the week.

"Instead of a speech, what I'd like to do is to ask all of us join in some silent prayer for all those Americans who are spending this Labor Day in a shelter waiting for another storm to pass," Obama said at an outdoor rally in the shadow of General Motors' headquarters.
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Republicans have criticized Obama for continuing to campaign while the storm threatens the region hit hard by Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Republican John McCain scaled back the opening of his nominating convention because of the hurricane.




"There's a time for us to argue politics, but there's a time for us to come together as Americans," Obama said, trying to place himself above politics. "I know John McCain wants what's best for the people who have been evacuated. I know George Bush wants what's best for them and so do I."

In an e-mail sent to hundreds of thousands of his supporters, Obama said, "Please give whatever you can afford, even $10, to make sure the American Red Cross has the resources to help those in the path of this storm." Aides said the e-mail did not go to people in areas likely to be affected by Gustav.

In his brief remarks Monday, Obama praised organized labor, which typically works on behalf of Democratic candidates.



"The idea behind the labor movement is that you don't walk alone. You're not by yourself. And each of us are vulnerable by ourselves. Each of us are subject to tragedy and disaster," Obama said.

"I believe it's important to have a president who doesn't choke on the word 'union.' And I believe we have to have a Department of Labor that believes in labor."

Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, also skipped a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh to monitor the storm on Monday.

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Bush to address convention via satellite

First lady Laura Bush, left, and Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., address the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Monday, Sept. 1, 2008.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Map, News) - Republicans swung their convention back on a political track Tuesday after a pause for Hurricane Gustav, giving President Bush a prime-time speaking slot to promote John McCain's candidacy for the White House. Former Democrat Joe Lieberman and TV star and former Sen. Fred Thompson also got speaking roles.

The president will address the convention by satellite from the White House.

There was a flurry of last-minute changes as Republicans tried to patch together a new schedule for the three remaining days of their convention. Monday's opening session was abbreviated and stripped of sharp political rhetoric as the nation kept its focus on Gustav, once seen as a major threat to the Gulf Coast. It landed with a blow that was less devastating than feared, allowing the GOP to lift the McCain-imposed ban on partisanship.

Bush had been in line to speak to the convention in person Monday night but instead went to Texas to be with disaster workers as Gustav threatened the Gulf. Some Republicans had breathed a sigh of relief to have the unpopular president out of the way and off the television screens. But Bush still was guaranteed a warm welcome from fellow Republicans in the convention hall.


The White House was so concerned about intruding on McCain's show that aides would neither confirm nor even discuss the ongoing planning for what was widely known to be happening: the speech to delegates by the president on Tuesday night. Bush aides were hypersensitive about any move that might offend McCain or be seen as trumping his show - a byproduct of McCain's delicate effort to distance himself from the president.

Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, was one of McCain's rivals for the Republican nomination. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, was the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000 and now is a McCain supporter. Republicans say the two will talk about McCain's life and their friendship with him.

The revamped schedule suggested that convention planners were easing back into partisan politics with an appeal to independent-minded voters. Thompson is known by most voters for his portrayal of a gruff district attorney on NBC's "Law & Order."

It was unclear whether Thompson had replaced former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the convention keynoter and, if so, why. Convention planners said Giuliani would address the gathering in prime-time Wednesday or Thursday, though they did not know whether he would remain the keynote speaker as planned.

Hamstrung by Gustav and distracted by the revelation that McCain running mate Sarah Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, Republicans were trying to get back on track Tuesday.

Lieberman, who left the Democratic Party after losing a Senate primary, has angered many Democrats by criticizing their nominee, Barack Obama.

"I'm not going to spend any time tonight attacking Sen. Obama," Lieberman told CNN, but he added that he would explain "why I am an independent Democrat voting for Sen. McCain."

The convention seeks to reintroduce Americans to McCain and provide a high-profile introduction for Palin. The governor of Alaska for nearly two years, she is little-known outside of her state.

So far, Palin has not conducted a formal news conference or taken questions from reporters, and no such sessions were scheduled Tuesday. Her only statement Monday disclosed that her daughter Bristol was pregnant and planned to marry the baby's father.

That news was followed by the announcement that a private lawyer had been hired to represent Palin in a state investigation into the dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner.

The man who led McCain's search for a vice-presidential nominee said he thought all the possible red flags unearthed during the background check had now been made public.

Under the weight of Gustav, speeches at the convention on Monday were light on red-meat rhetoric and heavy with appeals for donations to victims of the Gulf Coast storm, which was the main message in brief remarks from Laura Bush and her would-be successor, Cindy McCain.

"This is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats," said Cindy McCain.

Added the first lady, "Our first priority for today and in the coming days is to ensure the safety and well-being of those living in the Gulf Coast region."

Obama also appealed to his supporters, asking them in a mass e-mail and text message to donate to the Red Cross. His schedule for the rest of the week was up in the air as he returned to Chicago headquarters to monitor the storm's aftermath.

Outside the Xcel Energy Center where the convention officially began, police contended with thousands of protesters, some of whom attacked a group of Connecticut delegates.

Others smashed cars, punctured tires and threw bottles, while many marched peacefully in a gathering that was initially conceived as an anti-war demonstration. Police arrested a few protesters for lighting a trash container on fire and pushing it into a police car

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Barack Obama: History In The Making Again

I is not surprising that i have decided to join this craze in the entire African Nation for Barack Obama. I wouldn't want to be left out of this history that is about to be made.

This blog is therefore dedicated to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
You will not find all articles here from me but you can be sure that this can be a central point where you will read anything and everything about Barack Obama's Election campaign as it unfolds.

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