(Photo: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times) 10:53 p.m. | ‘Surprise’: Mr. Biden’s wife, Jill, comes out and hugs her husband. She says we have a very special surprise for him — and the TV flashes to Mr. Obama standing in the wings.
Then he’s out on stage and the crowd is cheering. The three of them — Mr. Biden, Mr. Obmaa and Dr. Biden are together, while Michelle Obama is in the stands. Mrs. Biden leaves the stage, then Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama do the classic pose.
“Hello Democrats,” he says. And gives a nod to Mrs. Clinton: “If I’m not mistaken, Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night,” he says to huge applause. And he pays homage to Bill Clinton, saying the former president reminded people of what can be accomplished by a president “who puts people first.” Mr. Clinton looked pleased.
Now it’s time for the photos. Sister Sledge’s “We are FAM-I-LY” is playing as the whole Biden clan is trooping out on to the stage. Michelle Obama stays in the stands and applauds — this is Biden night.
10:50 p.m. | A Sign? The campaign workers are collecting the red Biden signs and handing out blue Obama-Biden signs. They’re getting ready.
10:39 p.m. | Freudian Slip: Mr. Biden’s Freudian slip gets a big laugh — when he says “George” when he means “John.” That’s the subtext of his speech, which hasn’t come yet — that Mr. McCain is Mr. Bush.
10:33 p.m. | Accepts the Nomination: The speech is classic Biden. He jokes about not being a man of few words, and he acknowleded his wife by saying she’s the only one who leaves him both breathless and speechless at the same time. (And no, that wasn’t spontaneous. It’s in his prepared text.)
10:20 p.m. | Biden’s Moment: The video introducing Mr. Biden is on now. Nice family introduction. The part about Mr.Biden’s desire to end the war in Iraq is bringing cheers from the audience.
Mr. Biden’s son, Beau, gives a heartfelt introduction of his father. He shares the story of the accident that killed his mother and his younger sister and left him and his brother severely injured. And he honors his stepmother, Jill.
The hall is filled with red Biden signs, bobbing up and down now, with Mr. Biden taking the podium.
10:10 p.m. | Barack Buzz: The hall is buzzing with the possibility that Mr. Obama might show up here tonight. Of course, he has appeared numerous times already on various videos, and the speakers have been mentioning his name with much regularity.
It wouldn’t be a big break with precedent if he did show up. In 2000, Al Gore appeared the night before his acceptance speech, shortly after his running mate, Joseph I. Lieberman, had accepted the nomination. If Mr. Obama shows up, it is likely to be after Mr. Biden accepts the nomination.
Reasons to show up? It would excite the crowd. It would provide a jubilant shot of the newly minted ticket that might replace some other images on television, like those of Mrs. Clinton’s dramatic moment on the floor earlier tonight. Besides, since Mr. Obama is accepting the nomination at a place different from where the convention has been all week, it seems odd not to come to his convention _ kind of as if he’s letting the mountain come to him.
Reasons not to show up? Allow the excitement to build. Play the bride, not allowing a glimpse before walking down the aisle.
Of course, he could have come out when Mr. Clinton was on stage. Now that would have really electrified the crowd, and demonstrated that bygones were bygones. Of course, that would have been tomorrow’s picture, and perpetuated images of the Clintons dominating the convention.
9:44 p.m. | Obama’s Uncle: Just to track back for a minute because we didn’t quite catch who the man was who was shown during Mr. Kerry’s speech who is sitting with Michelle Obama. That was Mr. Obama’s great uncle, Charlie Payne. He is Mr. Obama’s mother’s mother’s brother, and he helped liberate Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald. Mr. Payne was a member of the 89th Infantry Division.
Former President Bill Clinton takes to the stage at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times) 9:43 p.m. | Comeback: Mr. Kerry is letting it rip, much of his anger from 2004, when his own military record was swiftboated, bubbling to the surface. He asks how dare the Republicans try to do the same thing to Mr. Obama. “You don’t decide who’s a patriot,” he declares, or whose service counts and whose doesn’t. “That flag doesn’t belong to any ideology.”
9:41 p.m. | Myth of a Maverick: Mr. Kerry on John McCain: “I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let’s compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.”
9:28 | Kerry on Stage: Senator John Kerry is up. Some say he’s a potential secretary of state in an Obama administration. Mr. Kerry, of all people, just had a good line at his own expense. He was saying that John McCain has changed his position on immigration, then added: Talk about being before it before he was against it. The crowd loved it. Otherwise, they seem a bit distracted.
9:26 p.m. | A Little Exit Music, Please: Mr. Clinton clocks in at more than 20 minutes — twice the alloted time. (Transcript)
Was that “Addicted to Love” they just played?
Our colleague Jackie Calmes sends this along: Vin Webber, the former Republican congressman from Minnesota, had this to say about Mr. Clinton’s remarks: “Great speech and the best case for Obama we’ve heard yet.”
9:25 p.m. | The Right Side of History: Mr. McCain is a good man, loves his country and has shown his independence from Republican orthodoxy on some important issues, Mr. Clinton says, but he has failed on the two big issues of our time: how to rebuild the American dream and how to restore America’s place in the world.
“He still embraces the extreme philosophy that has defined his party for more than 25 years,” he says.
More than 16 minutes in, Mr. Clinton recounts the achievements of his own administration. “The Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief,” Mr. Clinton says. “Sound familiar? It didn’t work in 1992 because we were on the right side of history. And it will not work in 2008 because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.” This also brings big cheers from the crowd.
9:17 p.m. | Tick, Tick, Tick: Just glancing at the countdown clock, we see Mr. Clinton is exceeding his allotted 10 minutes. We’re up to about 14 minutes at this point. And he’s just getting around to the Republicans.
9:05 p.m. | The Heat: Mr. Clinton then turned to the matter of his wife’s candidacy, and sought to joke about his role.
“That primary generated so much heat, it probably speeded up global warming,” he said, adding that Senator Clinton’s speech last night was a hard act to follow. Then he repeated his support for the nominee, but in reference to Mrs. Clinton: “She’s going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama,” he said. “That makes two of us.”
Mr. Clinton is being far more declaratory about Mr. Obama’s ability to be president than his wife was last night. “Barack Obama is the man for this job,” Mr. Clinton says.
“Barack Obama is ready to lead America,” he says, a line that brings the conventioneers to their feet. And here’s the money quote: “Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.”
9 p.m. | And Heeeeere’s Bill: Former President Bill Clinton is up. The crowd is going pretty wild, waving little American flags. The music? You should know: “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow).”
The digital countdown clock gives him 10 minutes. Mr. Clinton is trying to talk, but they keep interrupting. He wants to speak, but this must be gratifying, after the primaries. “I love this,” he finally gets to say, “but we have important work to do tonight. I am here tonight first to support Barack Obama.” This is what the crowd has been waiting to here. “And second, I’m here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden.”
Not often that his former president would say he a the warm-up act for another.
Our colleague Kate Phillips will be twittering Mr. Clinton’s speech from inside the Pepsi Center.
Delegates cheered as Senator Barack Obama received the democratic nomination during a roll call vote on Wednesday in Denver. (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times)8:30 p.m. | Going Back to to Cali: Like some of our readers, we’ve been trying to figure out why the California delegation passed in the roll call of states. The politics of the roll call can sometimes get intricate, although they usually reveal themselves in the end.
In this case, it turns out that the biggest delegation from the biggest state in the country passed because it just didn’t have its act together. That’s what we hear from state insiders. Their pass was not a strategy at all. California passed because some of its delegates were missing, distracted by the budget crisis back home, and the correct alternates were not on hand — if a woman delegate is missing, for example, she needs to be replaced by a woman alternate.
Here we thought that perhaps the delegation was torn over whether to support Mrs. Clinton. Or perhaps — here’s an intricate theory — that because the state has so many delegates, its votes would have forced so many other states to pass so that New York could put Mr. Obama over the top, that it just passed.
But no. Just a case of not being prepared.
We have to wonder how Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, felt. She’s of course a proud Californian, a big backer of Mr. Obama and the woman who flew to the podium to respond to Mrs. Clinton’s request to nominate Mr. Obama by acclamation.
Also, just to address another question that has come up. Some readers have suggested that by calling for the nomination-by-acclamation, Mrs. Clinton was preventing states after New York from casting their votes.
But those states will be recorded and counted, as will those from Illinois, New Mexico and California, which missed the vote the first time around. Mrs. Clinton said in her statement from the floor: “All votes will be counted.” If she tried to bar any votes from being counted, particularly after the point she made during the primary that Michigan and Florida should be included, she sure would have some ’splaining to do.
6:53 p.m. | It’s Official: It’s a wildly jubilant moment for Mrs. Clinton, and as she moves off the floor. Mrs. Pelosi declares at 6:52 p.m. that Mr. Obama is the party’s nominee.
Take a break now and get ready for the line-up later — a cavalcade of senators and then former President Bill Clinton, probably around 9 p.m. Eastern time. Senator John Kerry, the party’s last nominee, comes up afterward, as does Senator Bill Richardson.
There will be a tribute to the military and then the nomination of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr as vice president. The night closes with Mr. Biden’s acceptance speech, somewhere before 11 p.m. (Although keep in mind that some in this particular cast of characters have a history of long-winded-ness. We’re just saying.)
6:47 p.m. | Clinton Ends the Roll Call: Mrs. Clinton takes the mic and casts New York’s votes for Barack Obama.
“Madame Secretary, on behalf of the great state of New York,” she says, “with eyes firmly fixed on the future, with the spirt of unity, let’s declare together in one voice, right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.”
She then moves to suspend the rules and the roll call to declare Mr. Obama the nominee by acclamation. Here, at Mr. Obama’s big moment, the crowd is shouting, “Hillary! Hillary!” Nancy Pelosi has taken the podium, asks for a second, and in one swift moment, Mr. Obama is the nominee.
The move spared the New York delegation, which had supported her overwhelmingly over Mr. Obama, from having to choose between their home-state senator and the party’s nominee. It also means that Mr. Obama’s home state of Illinois never got to cast its votes.
The cover band is singing the O’Jay’s “Love Train.” Our colleagues inside the Pepsi Center report that people are following the song’s advice, joining hands, hi-fiving and dancing together.
6:44 p.m. | And the Crowd Goes Wild: Mrs. Clinton is entering the hall, and Illinois just yielded its turn to the great state of New York. The hall is going nuts.
Sheldon Silver, New York’s speaker of the Assembly, with Mrs. Clinton, her head bowed, next to him, takes the microphone and lists some of the state’s top pols, who are surrounding Mrs. Clinton: Chuck Schumer and Gov. David Patterson. He introduces Mrs. Clinton.
6:42 p.m. | Yield : New Mexico, just before proudly casting its 38 votes, yields to Illinois, home state of Senator Barack Obama.
6:39 p.m. | New Hampshire: New Hampshire just cast all of its 30 votes for Mr. Obama — even though Mrs. Clinton won the state. This state knows where it’s bread is buttered — it wants to keep its status as the first primary in the nation. Might be harder if it voted against the party’s nominee. New Jersey goes next an unanimously casts its votes for Mr. Obama.
6:34 p.m. | No Suspense, but Still Drama: The outcome, of course, is a foregone conclusion; Mr. Obama is about to become the 44th Democratic nominee. The anticipation is rising now over what Mrs. Clinton will say and whether she will seek to halt the roll call and ask that Mr. Obama be nominated by acclamation. The enormous outpouring for her in the hall last night and the many steps that the Obama campaign has taken to accommodate her — on top of the good reviews of her speech — may have made this moment possible for her. We don’t know if it has made this moment any easier.
6:28 p.m. | Michigan: And Michigan, where Mrs. Clinton won the invalidated primary and Mr. Obama withdrew his name from the ballot, has just cast 27 votes for Mrs. Clinton and 125 for Mr. Obama.
The crowd is now shouting, “Yes we can!” They’re up to Mississippi.
6:23 p.m. | A-B-C-D… The alphabetic roll call is up through the M’s and about to tip into the N’s. Mr. Obama has more than 1,000 votes and Mrs. Clinton has more than 300. She hasn’t yet appeared, but security agents are clearing the area around the New York delegation.
Our colleague Jackie Calmes reports from inside the Pepsi Center: The vote from Hawaii, Obama’s home state, was 28 to 1. The holdout was a 71-year-old man, Richard Port of Honolulu, who said he cast the Clinton vote for his late mother. “My mother was not able to get a credit card unless my father signed for it, and my father didn’t believe in credit cards so she didn’t get one even though she probably made more money than he did. … I have always wanted an opportunity to vote for a qualified woman. There’s no question that Hillary Clinton is qualified.”
Mr. Port said he would vote for Obama.
6:11 p.m. | We’re Rolling: DENVER — Hi everybody. The day has begun a bit early, with the roll call of the states now underway.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton released her delegates earlier in the day and is planning to come to the hall shortly — just in time for the network evening news. Mrs. Clinton will be accompanied to the floor by state legislators from New York and will help declare the state’s votes for Mr. Obama.
The roll call is racking up, with Mr. Obama at 584.5 votes and Mrs. Clinton at 152.5. They are up to Hawaii in the alphabet, which just cast 26 votes for Mr. Obama and one vote for Mrs. Clinton.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/live-from-denver-watching-the-roll-call/?hp
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