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CNN: Poll: Race for White House tied
The first national poll conducted after Barack Obama publicly named Joe Biden as his running mate suggests that the battle for the presidency between the Illinois senator and John McCain is all tied up.

CNN: Get to know me, Obama says going into convention
Sen. Barack Obama says this week's Democratic National Convention would help give voters a better "sense of who I am" - and Obama could get some unexpected help.

San Francisco Chronicle: McCain-Romney? Dems fear it could hurt in West
With several polls showing Democratic Sen. Barack Obama trailing Republican Sen. John McCain in Colorado on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, some of the state's Democrats worried Sunday that McCain might pick former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as a running mate to solidify his support among a key voting bloc – Mormons.

CNN: Clinton likely to release her delegates to Obama
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton likely will release her delegates to Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic official said Sunday, the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

CNN: Full voting rights restored to Florida and Michigan
In another bid to restore party unity, the Democratic National Committee voted unanimously Sunday to restore full convention voting rights to Florida and Michigan delegates.

Christian Science Monitor: McCain uses Hillary in new ad. Will Obama use Romney?
Early this morning (interestingly at 3 am), the McCain campaign launched a second ad using another Democrat’s words against Barack Obama. First, it was Obama’s new running mate, Joe Biden, and now it’s Hillary Clinton.

CNN Radio: Lights, Camera, Rhetoric!
The finishing touches have been placed on the Pepsi Center and the city of Denver is ready to host the Democratic Convention which begins today. Steve Kastenbaum has more in today’s CNN Radio Political Ticker.

WSJ: Platform Will Reflect Shifts On National Security and Economy
Convention delegates are set to ratify a party platform that refers sparingly to the "war on terror," among other marked shifts in tone on national-security issues from four years ago.

Chicago Tribune: States that could turn blue
Four states where the West—and the White House—could be won.

New York Sun: Census Data Will Put Economy at Top of Convention Agenda
Senator Obama will likely have another talking point at the Democratic National Convention tomorrow when the Census Bureau releases data on poverty, income, and the number of uninsured.

AP: McCain intrudes on Obama's convention message
John McCain certainly won't let Barack Obama have his Democratic convention all to himself. If Obama has a story to tell voters over the next four days, McCain is already pitching a far less flattering version from afar.

USA Today: Poll: More than half of Clinton backers still not sold on Obama
Fewer than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters in the presidential primaries say they definitely will vote for Barack Obama in November, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, evidence of a formidable challenge facing Democrats as their national convention opens here today.

Financial Times: McCain seeks to capitalise on discontent
John McCain sought on Sunday to capitalise on lingering discontent among Hillary Clinton’s most ardent supporters with a new advertisement that accused Barack Obama of passing over the New York senator as his running mate “for speaking the truth”.

WSJ: Biden Camp Pressed Hard For a Slot on the Ticket
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate reached a pivotal point in a secret meeting on the night of Aug. 6.

LA Times: Convention donors often have business before lawmakers and regulators
Contributors, including unions and corporations, say they are performing a civic duty in giving millions and don't expect anything in return.

WSJ: From Prayer to 'Faith Caucuses,' Party to Show Religious Side
The Democrats hope this week to show that they have found religion. Their convention opened Sunday with an interfaith prayer, which is set to be followed this week by an opening invocation and closing benediction on each day of the get-together.

Washington Post: African Americans Exult in Historic Leap
For Deborah Ross of Greenbelt, the sight of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama standing on stage this week to accept the Democratic nomination for president is something she knows her daughter, Miranda, has to experience even though it means she will miss her first week of her senior year at Eleanor Roosevelt High School.

NY Times: Blacks Debate Civil Rights Risk in Obama’s Rise
On the night that Senator Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for president, Roderick J. Harrison plans to pop open a bottle of Champagne and sit riveted before the television with his wife and 12-year-old son.

NY Times: Obama Aides Defend Bank’s Pay to Biden Son
During the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday.Washington Post: Candidates Running Closest In the West.

On Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination here before a crowd of around 70,000, a figure with resonance in the Mountain West: Had Sen. John F. Kerry flipped that number of votes combined in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada in 2004, he would have been president.

CNN: CNN forces Obama to release VP pick early
Barack Obama planned to name Joe Biden as his running mate by text message at 8 a.m. ET Saturday morning, but was forced to move up the announcement when CNN broke the story after midnight, a senior Obama official said.

Washington Post: Not Much News, but Journalists Can't Make Themselves Scarce
In the end, reporters were finally able to crack the wall of silence surrounding Barack Obama's running mate, but only by staying up mighty late.

Washington Post: Experience Is Double-Edged Sword for The Ticket
A week after a young state senator named Barack Obama stood in Chicago's Daley Plaza and denounced the move toward a "dumb war," Joseph R. Biden Jr. took to the well of the U.S. Senate to make a much more nuanced argument, both for a resolution that he knew could lead to the invasion of Iraq and for a diplomatic effort that he hoped would avert it.

CNN: Mark Preston’s Analysis: Biden's role is filling gaps and taking shots
Sen. Barack Obama, who chose a foreign policy expert with roots in Pennsylvania and an appeal to blue-collar voters as his running mate, wasted little time explaining his decision Saturday.

NY Times: For a Kennedy, an Unexpected Role in the No. 2 Choice
Yes, Caroline Kennedy says, she was taken aback when Senator Barack Obama asked her in the late spring to play a primary role on his vice-presidential search team.

Washington Post: The GOP's Delicate Passing of the Baton
When it gathers next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul for its quadrennial convention, the Republican Party will try to turn the page from George W. Bush to John McCain. It won't be an easy trick.

CNN: Pawlenty: McCain VP can handle Biden
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, long-rumored to be on Sen. John McCain’s short list for vice president, told CNN’s “Late Edition” he isn’t concerned about newly chosen Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

Washington Post: The 17 Minutes That Launched a Political Star
The Hawker jet lifted out of Springfield, Ill., under midnight darkness, and Barack Obama leaned back into a leather chair. In his lap rested a copy of the keynote address he would deliver in three days at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

NY Times: Jill Biden Heads Toward Life in the Spotlight
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. has said he first saw pictures of Jill Jacobs in March 1975 in an advertisement for a local park in Wilmington, Del. The young blonde caught his eye. She was beautiful — you might call her drop-dead gorgeous.

Washington Post: A Chance for the Candidates' Wives to Court Support
As Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain prepare for prominent appearances at the party nominating conventions, both are viewed more favorably than not, even though a substantial slice of the electorate has yet to form a firm opinion.

Washington Post: Delegates, Too, Have Traveled a Long Road to Reach Denver
When Sen. Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination Thursday night, he will stand before thousands of delegates who fought hard to get him to his triumphant moment, and many who opposed him. They will make up the most diverse party delegation in history - half are women, and more than 40 percent are minorities. A generation ago, the majority were white men.

Washington Post: Why Fluff-Over-Substance Makes Perfect Evolutionary Sense
The question is not which scandals are true but why certain story lines hook our interest. Why are we more likely to discuss a gossipy rumor at a party than a policy error that can actually make a material difference to our own lives?

NY Times: Anxious Party Hopes to Show Strong Obama
Democrats gathering here for their nominating convention are significantly more nervous about Senator Barack Obama’s prospects this fall than they were a month ago, and are urging him to use the next four days to address weaknesses in his candidacy and lingering party divisions from the primary fight.

CNN: Dems might counter-program GOP rally
Call it the battle of rallies. Barack Obama campaign sources told CNN's Gloria Borger and Jessica Yellin that Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, will have their first post-convention joint rally Friday, likely in Pennsylvania.

CNN: Blitzer: Democrats kick off major marketing in Denver
And now the selling begins. The Democrats need to do some major marketing at their party convention in Denver, Colorado.

NY Times: Networks Hope to Find Unique TV Moment at Democratic Convention
When Barack Obama accepts his party’s nomination on Thursday before a capacity audience of 70,000 at Invesco Field in Denver, an aerial camera will hover above the stadium turf, using a TV technique normally applied at football games.

Washington Post: In the Quake Model, Rumblings Favor Obama
More than a quarter-century ago, a historian with an interest in American politics was at a dinner party at the California Institute of Technology and found himself seated next to a Soviet geophysicist and mathematician who studied earthquake prediction.

CNN: Stars come out for political conventions
Kanye West raising the roof. Charlize Theron leading the charge. Gwyneth Paltrow and Edward Norton stumping for the arts.

CNN: Camping out for the Obama speech
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is preparing for supporters to sleep outside of Invesco Field the night before he formally accepts the Democratic presidential nomination before more than 75,000 people.

NY Times: For the Last Presidential Debate, a Nation’s Eyes Will Turn to Hofstra
When Stuart Rabinowitz, president of Hofstra University on Long Island, began his quest to play host to one of this year’s presidential debates, he was told by many friends and associates that the odds were not in his favor.