While its true not everyone was happy with the way the 2008 Democratic Convention shaped up, the organizers of the event and party leaders must be breathing a huge sigh of relief having seemingly achieved most of their aims in Denver.

Firstly the undeniable warmth of Michelle Obama's opening night address interwove fluently and convincingly her family's story and that of her husband in a speech that will go a long way towards dispelling voters' doubts about her. She has been the focus of unfair criticism concerning her patriotism and commitment, but largely overcame this in a confident display dispelling organisers' fears that choosing her as the opening speaker was a risk.

Next came the crucial uniting speech from Hillary Clinton. Her performance, which has been likened to being the ex-fiancee forced to toast the blushing bride at a wedding, was sublime and healed much of the bitter division between the Clinton and Obama camps, left over from the bruising nomination battle.

Though some reporters detected a certain hesitancy in outlining the quality of an Obama presidency, she called on her supporters to rally behind Obama, a uniting effort that every Democrat was hoping she'd make and vital to Obama's election chances.

An awkward-looking Bill Clinton completed the Clinton acquiesence by comparing the inexperienced Obama to another inexperienced contender in 1992 - himself. Though increasingly overshadowed by Hillary these days, and Denver was no exception, the former president still commands enormous clout amongst the faithful.

However Hillary Clinton's role was not confined to the unity speech when, in a dramatic moment from the floor representing the New York delegation, she stopped the state-by-state count and proposed Obama's name be read as the Democratic nominee - an electrifying and uniting moment for Democrats.

The theatre of the moment is expertly described by Justin Webb, the BBC's America blogger.

And then there was the historic Obama acceptance speech, the first time a black person has been nominated from a major party for president of the United States.

After accepting the nomination "with humility" Obama finally did two things which will please many of his supporters and potential voters. He took the gloves off against McCain and set out an agenda for his "change" programme.

Likening a McCain administration to four more years of a Bush administration, Obama obliquely referred to the Arizona senator's famous temper when he said he had the better temperament and judgement to be commander-in-chief than McCain. After weeks of being the subject of negative attacks from the McCain camp, is this a sign the Obama camp will flick the switch to attack mode?

In another "gloves off" line against the doughty Republican nominee, Obama said "John McCain says he'd follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives."

Setting out his agenda for an Obama administration - the first time he has fleshed out his somewhat nebulous "change" programme - the Democratic nominee placed affordable health care, tax cuts for ninety-five of the population, a commitment to renewable energy and the environment at the top of the agenda.

Forty-five years to the day since Dr Martin Luther King's famous speech, was it my imagination or did Obama deliberately adopt the speaking style of Dr King when he spoke of the promise that had brought people from all over America on that day in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.?

The speech though was not a Dr King-style speech of soaring rhetoric that Americans have become used to from Obama, but more a matter-of-fact nuts and bolts address, notice perhaps that the election is only nine weeks away. 

With the Republican Convention due in the Twin Cities due next week, McCain knows he needs to hit back, and hit back hard. He has relied, with some success, on negative attack ads in recent times to bring him level pegging in the polls with Obama however he knows he much achieve a number of things himself at the Republican Convention.

Firstly his running mate (due to be announced this week) must make a good impression as Joe Biden has done for Obama. Then he must convince delegates that he is a "maverick" Republican and not beholden to the Bush administration.

And if that isn't enough, he must unify his own party of conservatives and the religious right with his moderate tendencies and set an agenda of his own that will be acceptable to middle America.

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Just days before the Democratic Convention in Denver gets underway, Barack Obama has bitten the bullet and selected Joe Biden, the six-term senator from Delaware, as his running mate. The selection of the 65-year-old Biden ends weeks of speculation over the number two spot on the ticket and confirmed there is no place for Hillary Clinton.

The likeable Biden brings to the ticket a wealth of experience, especially in foreign policy in his current capacity as chairman of the influential Foreign Relations Committee. However more important to Obama's presidential ambitions, he has broad white working-class voter appeal. It also does not hurt that Biden was born in Pennyslvania, a vital swing state.

In selecting Biden, Obama has signaled clearly what this week's Democratic National Convention will be about: He intends to move aggressively to ease the problems that have worried so many Democrats in recent weeks -- problems, it turns out, that Obama is worried about, too.

One of them concerns the limits of Obama's appeal to the white working class. Biden's unveiling was one long ode to line workers, cops and firefighters, to hard work and struggling families, to shuttered steel mills and lost manufacturing jobs. [source]

Overseas the reaction has been generally muted, though supportive. The Financial Times has described Biden as a safe pair of hands with the message to voters that he will be a moderating influence on the Democratic campaign.

Mr Biden is a decades-in-Congress senator from Delaware, a reliably Democratic state, and one of the best-known politicians in the US. He brings no electoral-college dowry, and injects no great surge of excitement into the race. He signals instead a moderate course adjustment, and bolsters the Obama candidacy where it most needs support.[source]

So was the choice of Biden an attempt to shore up Obama's vote in areas where he is vulnerable? The Illinois senator, at one stage leading steadily in the opinion polls, has slipped in recent weeks in the aftermath of the Georgian crisis giving Republican McCain a slender advantage. Though other factors may have been involved, many pundits are positing that Americans took another look at the inexperienced senator in the wake of renewed Russian aggression in the Caucasus and didn't like what they saw.

Obama's seemingly more cautious and diplomatic tone contrasted with McCain's clever and opportunist sabre-rattling against old foe Russia which appears to have hit a chord with voters. The selection of the experienced and mature Biden seems to have been made partly to offset McCain's perceived advantages in these areas. His broad appeal to working-class white voters, whose support is essential if Obama is to become president, may also neutralise the losses Obama will make by not selecting Hillary Clinton as running mate.

But is the selection of Biden an admission that the inexperienced Obama is not ready to be president, as contended by the McCain camp? Though Biden brings a lot of positive qualities to the ticket, his selection does seem to be made for the wrong reasons -- to plug leaking holes in the Obama campaign. There are also some risks associated with the Biden nomination, how his Catholicism will play in the wider voting community and the fact that the country's south is not represented on the ticket.

With all the colour and movement of the fair (Democratic Convention) about to get underway, expect Obama/Biden to throw the switch to "it's the economy stupid" and concentrate more on the economy and those vital but elusive white, working class voters.

For a taster, here's an excerpt of Biden's acceptance speech:

"Your kitchen table's like mine," Biden said. "You sit there at night, after you put the kids to bed, and you talk. You talk about what you need. You talk about how much you're worried about being able to pay the bills. But ladies and gentlemen, that's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience -- he'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at...He [McCain] served our country with extraordinary courage, and I know he wants to do right by America," Biden said of McCain. "But the hard truth is ... you can't change America when you supported George Bush's policies 95 percent of the time." [source]

Your thoughts?

Image top: Senator Joe Biden. Credit: U.S. Congress

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A top aide to US presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama has let slip that the Democratic contender is sincere about considering former rival Senator Hillary Clinton for a spot on the ticket, saying she was on the "shortlist" for the job of running mate.

After a sometimes acrimonious Democratic primary, which saw both sides question the other's fitness to govern, a joint rally held at the appropriately-named Unity, New Hampshire last Friday, has pundits suggesting Sen. Clinton is once again in the running for the all-important vice-presidential nominee slot.

Speaking on Australian television, Sen. Obama's campaign co-chairman Tom Daschle appeared to confirm this saying Sen. Clinton would be on "anybody's short list".

"I think he needs two things, first somebody who can become president in the case of a tragedy and secondly, somebody with whom he can work closely," he said to the ABC's Insiders program.

"I think Hillary Clinton would be, as Barack Obama has said, on anyone's short list and I think that is sincere.

"I think he is looking at Hillary and a host of other possibilities for the future."

Democratic Rep. Dan Boren, Oklahoma's only Democratic member of the congressional delegation, has refused to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for presidential office.

However Boren has said the Illinois Senator will have his vote both at the Democratic convention in Denver in August and in November on election day.

Calling Obama "the most liberal senator in Congress", Boren criticised his record on working with Republicans saying "it does not reflect working in a bipartisan fashion" and has joined Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney in refusing to endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Image: Official picture of Dan Boren. Credit: Public Domain