The Convention Is Over as the Campaign Begins

Main Topic

Has the Convention Produced 'The Message?' ()

The massive security presence outside the Pepsi Center just vanished overnight, as the Democrats have moved on to Invesco Field.  That's the football stadium where Barack Obama will address the convention delegates tonight plus tens of thousands of people who bought tickets. Did Bill Clinton's fiery endorsement finally bring the party together? Did he and Joe Biden define the themes of Obama's campaign? What are the challenges facing the first African-American nominee of a major political party?

Guests:

• Matthew Dowd: former Chief Campaign Strategist, 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, @matthewjdowd
• David Corn: Washington Bureau Chief, Mother Jones, @DavidCornDC
• Ryan Lizza: Washington Correspondent, The New Yorker, @RyanLizza
• Haroon Saleem: Founder, Generation Obama
• Peniel Joseph: Professor of Afro-American Studies, Brandeis University
• Kweisi Mfume: former President. NAACP

Links:

• Kerner Commission Report
• The Cosby Show
• Quinnipiac Poll on the election
• Corn on Democrats not attacking McCain at DNC
• Lizza's profile on Obama
• Joseph's 'Narrative History of Black Power in America'
• Martin Luther King, Jr's speech, 'I Have a Dream' (1963)

Reporter's Notebook

Echoes of Ancient Democracy in Denver ()

Tonight Barack Obama will address some 75,000 people on a stage featuring Greek columns like those of the White House and other buildings in Washington. President Bush used a similar set in 2004. The Obama campaign says there's no connection, though there are other reverberations. Danielle Allen, professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study, is author of Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education.

Guests:

• Danielle Allen: Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study