To the Point
Day Three: Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Foreign Policy
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Day Three: Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Foreign Policy

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Last night it was Hillary, tonight it's Bill.  Vice Presidential selection Joe Biden will have to compete with another Clinton. On a night that's scheduled to highlight foreign policy, we hear how the Obama campaign chose Biden. Also, the Pepsi Center in Denver is a long way from Washington, DC, but some things are still the same. how corporations and unions finance party conventions with tax-deductible money.

Banner image: Chuck Kennedy-Pool/Getty Images

Main Topic

Day Three of the DNC: Joe Biden's Night ()

Hillary Clinton's much awaited message last night was billed as her chance to demonstrate party loyalty by putting an end to the much reported "tensions" resulting from a primary season that was dramatically historic and dramatically close.  Hillary might be a hard act for Bill Clinton to follow, but that's his job tonight.  Barack Obama reportedly told him to say whatever he wants to. The rest of the night is choreographed to highlight vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and America's relationship to the rest of the world. Are continued tensions between Obama and Clinton forces exaggerated by reporters hard up for a story? What does Biden bring to the ticket and how was he chosen?

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Reporter's Notebook

The Convention at the Grassroots ()

In today's Reporter's Notebook, we look at two less examined aspects of the convention.

Presidential campaigns are governed by limits on financial contributions, but when it comes to party conventions, the story is very different. Corporations and labor unions can write checks for millions of dollars right out of their treasuries, and the money is tax deductible. That's according to Sheila Krumholz of the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

In Los Angeles eight years ago, an appearance by Rage Against the Machine led to violence, tear gas and multiple arrests outside Staples Center, where the Democrats were in convention. Today, that same rock-protest band is performing in the Denver Coliseum, far across town from the Pepsi Center. In the 1960's Todd Gitlin, now professor of journalism at Columbia University, led protests against the Vietnam War. He was in Chicago for the infamous police riot at the Democratic convention of 1968.

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