Obama, Biden To Tour Battleground States

Clinton, Obama Camps Strike A Deal For Ground Rules Of Wednesday’s Roll Call Nomination Vote

(CBS/ AP)  Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and running mate Joe Biden will embark on a bus tour of battleground states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan later this week after he receives the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign announced Wednesday.

That nomination will formally come later Wednesday as delegates to the Democratic National Convention crown Obama as the first black nominee of a major political party.

Obama was due to arrive in the convention city Wednesday afternoon.

Former President Clinton was also set to deliver a prime-time address at the convention, a day after his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sought to unify the party after a bitter primary season, delivering the second part of a one-two punch.

Representatives of Clinton and Obama struck a deal setting ground rules for Wednesday's roll call vote that will hand the nomination to Obama, but will also allow Clinton supporters to express their support for her.

Advisers to Clinton and Obama sent a joint letter to state delegation chairs instructing them to distribute vote tally sheets to delegates Wednesday and return them by before the vote is scheduled to get under way at 6 p.m. EDT.

The letter, first obtained Tuesday night by The Associated Press, said Clinton would have one nominating speech and two seconding speeches, followed by Obama's nominating speech and three seconding speeches - totaling no more than 15 minutes for each candidate. Then the roll call will begin, said the letter signed by Obama senior adviser Jeff Berman, Clinton senior adviser Craig Smith and convention secretary Alice Germond.

The roll call will continue until all votes are counted or someone asks the delegates to give the nomination to Obama by acclamation.

Democratic officials close to Clinton say they plan to have someone - perhaps the senator herself - cut off the vote after a few states.

Anticipating Wednesday night's focus on national security at the Democratic National Convention, Republican John McCain contended in a new TV ad that Obama showed he was "dangerously unprepared" for the White House when he described Iran as a "tiny" nation that didn't pose a serious threat.

"Iran. Radical Islamic government. Known sponsors of terrorism. Developing nuclear capabilities to 'generate power' but threatening to eliminate Israel," says the ad, which was being run in key states. "Terrorism, destroying Israel - those aren't 'serious threats"'?

Missing from the ad was the context of Obama's remarks last May in which he compared Iran and other adversarial governments to the superpower Soviet Union. "They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us," he said in arguing for talks with Iran. "You know, Iran, they spend one-100th of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance."

The McCain ad signaled a shift from trying to stir up Hillary Clinton's supporters with her primary-season criticism of Obama to raising fears about Obama's ability to handle international threats. Clinton closed the book on her 2008 presidential bid Tuesday night with an emphatic plea for the party to unite behind Barack Obama.

The Democratic convention spotlight was turning to her husband, the former president, as he prepared to take the prime-time television stage Wednesday night. He is expected to launch attacks on McCain and on the Bush administration, particularly on the state of the U.S. economy.