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CBS News consultant Joe Trippi writes about growing interest in Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her convention acceptance this week.

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(ST. PAUL) Everywhere I go people are asking, if the revelations around Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s selection by John McCain to be his running mate have hurt the Arizona Senator’s chances of winning the Presidency.

The truth, no matter what the polls say today, is that we don’t know yet.

The massive amount of media focus on Palin over the past 48 hours, including her daughter’s out of wedlock pregnancy and the potentially incompetent vetting of her by the McCain campaign, is setting the stage for her speech at the GOP convention here in St. Paul.

It is precisely because no one knows much about the Governor from Alaska, including, apparently the McCain campaign, that the questions surrounding her candidacy are building intense interest in her convention speech which will now be viewed by a television audience in the tens of millions.

With every question, with every controversy, the size of the audience likely to tune in to watch Governor Palin sink or swim in the treacherous waters of a full blown presidential campaign grows.

Governor Palin’s speech is likely, one way or another, to provide the most dramatic moment of either convention.

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(DENVER) It was still more six hours before Barack Obama was scheduled to take the stage to formally accept the Democratic nomination for president, but Verda Martin had already settled into her seat at Denver’s open-air Invesco Field for what she called “one of the most important moments we’ve had in probably the last 20 or 30 years.”

“I’m really excited, I’m really, really excited,” Martin said, laughing, as her boyfriend nodded emphatically in the next seat over. “I never thought I would see a nomination speech live, and then for it to be the first African-American presidential nominee, so yeah – I’m just about to jump out of my skin.”

Inside the stadium, venders who normally would be selling Denver Broncos merchandise instead hawked Obama t-shirts and hats at tables strewn with forms asking customers to donate to the Obama Victory Fund. (The form made it clear that between donations to Obama’s primary campaign, general election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, donors could give more than $30,000.)


Outside, meanwhile, the line snaked for blocks, nearly back to the Pepsi Center a mile away. The mood, however, was festive, with corporate sponsors handing out free water bottles and a blue sky that likely eased the nerves of organizers worried that rain would come down on Obama’s triumphant moment.

Dave Newell, a former Hillary Clinton supporter who “immediately joined Obama’s team,” said he waited for forty-five minutes to get into the stadium, where more than 75,000 are expected to turn out.

“I came out just to kind of be inspired, to soak up a little of the energy of the crowd and maybe take some energy out and spread it around for Obama,” he said, looking out over the stage affixed with columns where Obama would later speak.


Leonardo Ranzani, meanwhile, had come to Denver from Milan. He sat in the stadium in a red, white and blue top hat.

Most of the people he knows in Milan, he said, “tend to be Obama supporters, probably because he is more similar to a European way of seeing things. Maybe because of the health care plan.”

“The idea to have a black president,” he said, explaining what drew him all the way to Denver. “Many, many people believe that many Americans are maybe racist or something, and then you say, ‘oh, a black president, he’s going to win, it’s a kind of change.’”

(DENVER) Barack Obama’s campaign released some excerpts of the speech Michelle Obama will deliver during her prime-time appearance at the convention tonight. According to the campaign, Michelle Obama “will talk about her husband … the values that have driven him as a father, husband and public servant and why she believe he will be an extraordinary president.”

Here’s an excerpt from Michelle Obama’s prepared remarks: “Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children – and all children in this nation – to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

The tone of the remarks released this afternoon track with the message the campaign has stressed coming into this convention, stressing values that will connect with many voters and trying to introduce the candidate as “one of you.”

Barack Obama isn't going to make it to the Tar Heel state today.

Not long after his airplane was diverted to St. Louis due to "a maintenance issue," Obama's campaign announced that the candidate would not make it to North Carolina. His appearance in the state will be "postponed to a future date," the campaign said in a release.

"The plane is remaining in St. Louis until the check is completed and as a result Senator Obama will not be able to hold his event today in Charlotte," the campaign said. "Senator Obama will return to the Tar Heel state again soon and looks forward to a continuing discussion with hard-working North Carolina families about his agenda to strengthen our economy and bring the change America needs."

Obama still plans to deliver the speech on the economy he had been scheduled to give today – but it will be in St. Louis, not Charlotte. The campaign is trying to work out the logistics now, and it is possible he will end up simply delivering the remarks to the traveling press.

Obama plans to say that President Bush's economic plan "hasn't worked, it won't work, and it's time to try something new," according to excerpts of the speech reported by the Associated Press.

He will also suggest that Mr. Bush and presumptive GOP nominee John McCain offered similar plans, arguing that McCain plans to do "exactly what George Bush has done for the last eight years."

"I won't stand here and pretend that we can or should undo the economic transformations that have taken place over the last few decades," Obama will say in the speech. "There are jobs that aren't coming back and this world will always be more competitive. But I do believe that if all of us are willing to share the burdens and benefits of this new economy, then all of us will prosper not just because government makes it so, but because we're willing to take responsibility as individuals to work harder and think more and innovate further."