Democratic Convention

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The decision to move President Obama's speech indoors to avoid the rain isn't just a logistical nightmare for his campaign team. It cancels the plan to register tens of thousands of North Carolina residents to vote as they waited in line for the Thursday night event. But the change doesn't derail a larger plan by the Obama campaign to use the Democratic National Convention as a nuts-and-bolts campaign planning event. It's still an “organizing tool,” in the words of campaign manager Jim Messina.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It included six straight hours of speechifying, mind-bendingly long lines to buy overpriced water and hot dogs and the requirement that all umbrellas be abandoned at the entrance. But delegates inside the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte gave high marks to the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, emphasizing that they're just as enthusiastic this time around as they were in 2008. “I have been coming here since [Walter F.] Mondale ran for president and this was the best I've heard,” said Elsie Burkhalter, a delegate from Louisiana.

The multi-channel miniseries called "The Democratic National Convention" got underway Tuesday night in Charlotte, N.C. Unlike the comparable Republican miniseries, which was subject to some rescheduling (though not, really, shortening) due to the late-breaking news that was Hurricane Isaac, it has been planned from the start to last only three nights. In Charlotte, as in Tampa, much of the convention takes place out of view. The networks' disinclination to air more than an hour of it any night seemingly has been justified by the low ratings for last week's GOP meet, though ratings should not be what decides such coverage.

CHARLOTTE , N.C. -- As is customary for political conventions, the headliner is also the straggler. After days of campaigning in swing states, President Obama landed in Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon, the day before he's slated to give his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. It's not clear when conventioneers will first lay their eyes on the president. The Obama campaign is keeping quiet about Obama's schedule and the decision to move his speech indoors has made sketchy details even sketchier.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It might be a Republican's nightmare: swarms of media, especially mainstream media, descending on a city, outnumbering everyone else and clogging up the lines for coffee. But that's exactly what's happening this week in Charlotte as reporters, editors, photographers, bloggers, gaffers and administrators from Tokyo to Washington are in town to cover the convention. There are an estimated 15,000 members of the media in town, making up nearly half of the 35,000 people the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority estimates will attend the convention this week.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Sounding at times like a college lecturer and others like a revival speaker, former President Clinton delivered a thumping endorsement Wednesday night of incumbent Barack Obama, saying his policies were slowly healing the country and would lead to dramatic improvement in a second term. “No president, not me or any of my predecessors, could have repaired all the damage in just four years," Clinton said in a rapturously received speech that capped the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Day One of the Democratic convention made clear that the two parties agree on one thing: Women and Latinos will determine the outcome of the 2012 election. But as Tuesday's proceedings showed, they have sharply contrasting ways of pitching their appeals. From Ann Romney's speech in Tampa, Fla., a week ago, through Sen. Marco Rubio's address on the GOP's closing night, Republicans focused repeatedly on trying to limit President Obama's lead among those two groups.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It was a short speech, but when Benita Veliz stepped up to the lectern at the Democratic National Convention, she made history. The 27-year-old from San Antonio became the first illegal immigrant to address a national political convention. “Like so many Americans of all races and backgrounds, I was brought here as a child,” she told the crowd Wednesday night. “I've been here ever since.” Veliz, an advocate for the Dream Act - legislation that would pave the way for illegal immigrants to legal residency and citizenship if they go to college or perform military service - talked of being a high-achieving student who graduated early from Jefferson High School, becoming a National Merit Scholar, before graduating from St. Mary's University.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Michelle Obama made the case Tuesday for her husband's reelection by contending that he was the same person who voters embraced four years ago - and by implicitly skewering his November opponent. The first lady's enthusiastically received remarks were designed to reintroduce her husband, in intimate terms, and to counter diminished enthusiasm for his reelection among members of his 2008 coalition. "I have seen first-hand that being president doesn't change who you are. No, it reveals who you are," she said in closing the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Zipping around Charlotte this week, Martin O'Malley has the air of a runner seeking a head start in a race where his competitors aren't even in the starting gates. Maryland's governor seems to be everywhere at the Democratic National Convention. He has delegation breakfasts, panel discussions and network interviews in a packed schedule that also includes a role in the opening of the convention Tuesday night, and then a prime-time speech from the podium. After that: a jam session with O'Malley's March, his Irish rock band.