The Economist went to press before Mr Obama's stadium speech accepting the nomination on August 28th.

ECONOMIST: Barack Obama struggled this week to unite his party

The votes will end on Thursday night, when Bush enters the convention hall to receive his party's nomination and deliver his acceptance speech.

CNN: Colin Powell

He ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out after charges of plagiarism in a stump speech.

CNN: Biden is experienced and, sometimes, too frank

Douglas Brinkley, a well-known presidential historian and professor at Rice University, says it's not sure that Obama would have won the Democratic nomination without Kennedy's endorsement and that noteworthy part of his speech.

CNN: Is Camelot's future in Obama's hands?

The speech immediately drew sharp criticism from her rivals for the Democratic nomination, one of whom accused her of teaming up with Mr. Bloomberg, a close ally, to block many proposals that would help working families.

WSJ: Quinn Address Aims at Middle Class