E&P at Democratic Convention: Reports on Big Final Day!

By: E&P Staff Starting Monday, E&P has provided items and reports from Denver, where the Democrats are meeting all week to officially nominate the Obama-Biden team.

The pieces are written by one of our current columnists, Maegan Carberry, and Charles Geraci, a former intern here who covered the 2004 GOP convention in New York. Geraci now works for The Herald Journal in Logan, Utah, a daily paper, and is one of 50 correspondents affiliated with MTV this election year as part of its "Choose or Lose" team.

So here are today's postings-- so far. Return for more later, updated from the top, as the final day of the confab continues..
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8:00 PM ET. Like everyone else, I?m still recovering from the Clintons? gracious display of party unity last night. As I told Ted last night at the Manifest Hope Unconventional ?08 party, everyone is looking for a reason to love Bill again. Why do we do this to ourselves? Because he says things like: ?Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm.?

If you?re following along with my Twitter feed, you?ll know that my favorite part of the night was Beau Biden. Unbelievable! That guy should run for office when he comes back from Iraq.

Blogging now from the lobby at the Sheraton hotel before my pal Calysta and I head down to the big event. -- Maegan Carberry

1:45 PM ET

Of the 19 national conventions that Bob Schieffer has covered in his career, Wednesday night for the Democrats stands out to him as the top performance by a political party, he tells E&P.

"I've been to a lot of conventions, and I can't remember one when a party had a better night than I think they had (last) night," said Schieffer, who has been a floor reporter for all of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions since 1972.

The veteran CBS newsman and anchor of "Face the Nation" called former President Bill Clinton's speech a "barnburner."

"You know, you can love Bill Clinton; you can hate Bill Clinton," Schieffer said. "But he knows how to make a political speech, and you really saw him at his best."

Noting vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden had a "hard act to follow," Schieffer thought Biden did a "very good job."

"He really laid out what this campaign is gonna be about," Schieffer said. "The Republicans are gonna try to make this a referendum on Barack Obama's experience. What you saw, the Democrats are gonna try to make it a referendum on John McCain's judgment. And you saw (Biden) lay out those contrasts and really kind of lay out what the battle is gonna be."

Schieffer--who will moderate the third presidential debate on Oct. 15--said he suspected Obama might make a surprise appearance Wednesday, but didn't know it for a fact.

"We heard late in the afternoon that he might be coming to the hall, but we didn't know that he was gonna come out on stage. ... It was a dramatic finish."

E&P asked Schieffer what he thought Obama needs to do later today when the Illinois senator gives his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 people at Denver's INVESCO field.

"He's gotta go out and convince some of those lower income, blue collar workers that so far he's been unable to break through to," Schieffer said. "He's got to convince them he's one of them I think."

The election will be "very generational," according to Schieffer. "If you have a heavy turnout of young people, I think Barack Obama has a very good chance of winning," Schieffer said. "If you don't, I think it's gonna be very difficult for him. He's got to get the lower income people at the one end, and he's got to get the kids at the other end. That's gonna be the combination that'll do it for him." -- Charles Geraci