Coverage of the US Presidential election here
Look at the Republican Convention photo gallery here
Republican National Convention - St Paul-Minneapolis, MN September 1-4 2008
Day 1:
The US Republican convention, in which candidate John McCain will offer his response to Barack Obama's grand presentation last week, got off to a quiet start tonight.
The schedule and script were rewritten following Hurricane Gustav's arrival to the Gulf Coast region.
Instead of a glitzy first day with speeches from President George W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican delegates went through the bare minimum of procedural motions.
US First Lady Laura Bush and Senator McCain's wife Cindy briefly addressed delegates and then introduced video appearances by several Republican governors from Gulf coast states.
The presentation was billed as non-political even though no Democratic Governors took part.
Mrs McCain will then ask for delegates for help and donations for the relief efforts once the storm has passed, said Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager.
'We will try not to overly politicise it, but we felt it was important to encourage support into these areas,' Mr Davis said.
He added that as Gustav rumbles over Louisiana, it will become clearer just how much the four-day convention can resume its normal program tomorrow.
Convention organisers have also set up a phone bank in St Paul to encourage political donors to funnel money to hurricane victims, while delegates will work on producing 80,000 care packages to be sent to the disaster zone.
Palin Problems
Meanwhile, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin revealed today that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol is pregnant and plans to have the baby and marry the father.
'We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,' Sarah Palin and her husband said in a joint statement.
Mrs Palin is seen as a controversial choice for John McCain, given her lack of experience with foreign policy issues and a scandal dubbed 'Troopergate'.
She has now hired a lawyer to deal with allegations that her office used political pressure to have her sister's husband fired from his state police position while the couple was embroiled in a custody battle.
Anti-War Protest
Outside the Xcel Energy Center, the arena in St Paul where this year's convention is held, anti-war protestors marched through the streets.
While there were a few arrests and destroyed property, most protestors were peaceful.
Public safety officials put the crowd at 8,000 to 10,000.
The march wound past bus stops where advertisements from the Democratic National Committee showed Mr Bush and Mr McCain hugging with the slogan, 'Does this look like change to you?'
Day One of the Republican National Convention in photos here
Day 2:
US President George W Bush urged Republicans to rally around his chosen successor, John McCain, calling him right on the Iraq war and declaring him 'ready to lead' the US.
Mr Bush declared that John McCain 'understands the lessons' of the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the need to stay on the offense against terrorists, and called him one senator above all in his support for the war in Iraq.
President Bush made the comments in excerpts of what had been planned as a 15-minute speech in person until Hurricane Gustav battered the US Gulf Coast, three years after the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.
But the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama charged that Bush was merely passing the torch to a candidate who would offer four more years of disastrous policies, trying to saddle John McCain with the president's legacy.
Nearly eight years after winning the White House, George Bush spoke by satellite for less than eight minutes to his party's national convention in a mutually agreed long-distance show of support for the Arizona senator.
The vastly unpopular president's support is both blessing and burden for Senator McCain -- Mr Bush rates more highly among core Republicans than the senator, but risks alienating independents who will decide the 4 November election.
President Bush, who beat John McCain in the bitter battle for the Republican White House nomination in 2000, focused in the excerpts on decorated Vietnam War veteran McCain's life story while playing up his national security credentials.
'John McCain's life is a story of service above self,' said the president, an echo of the Republican campaign theme that Senator McCain's service as a Navy pilot, five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and US Senate career have forged his White House mettle.
Mr Bush also played up the national trauma of the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes, which led Bush to war in Afghanistan and which he invoked to justify the US-led March 2003 invasion of Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.
The president also stressed McCain's 'maverick' image, which has taken a beating over the past year as the senator has reversed his positions on key policies in ways that make him more appealing to the party's core supporters.
Mr Bush said Senator McCain's 'independence and character helped change history' because of his support for the January 2007 escalation of US troop levels in Iraq, which has helped yield starkly lower levels of sectarian violence.
The US president, who took office in January 2001, said he was optimistic that John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, would beat Democratic rival Barack Obama in the November 4 elections.
Day two of the Republican National Convention in photos here
Day three
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani took the gloves off last night and strongly criticised Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
They mocked his work as a community organiser and the 'Styrofoam Greek columns' used during his convention speech last week.
The convention formally nominated John McCain as the party's candidate to run in the November elections against Sen Obama.
In his keynote speech, Mr Giuliani, John McCain's opponent in the presidential primaries, attacked Sen Obama's experience, honesty and failure to use the term religiously-intolerant term 'Islamic terrorists' during his speech.
But the night belonged to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who made a highly-anticipated speech.
Unknown to most of the country just one week ago, she laid out her credentials as a 'hockey mom' and former small-town mayor.
'How do you tell the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick,' she joked.
She went on to offer up Alaska's untapped oil as a way to reduce US dependency on foreign sources.
'To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies, or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia, or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries, we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas,' Gov Palin said.
'And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both.'
Her attacks on Barack Obama, as well as his running mate Joe Biden and the Senate majority leader Harry Reid, were a sign that she intends to be a pitbull for John McCain.
Shortly before her speech, the tabloid National Enquirer claimed it had evidence of an affair between Gov Palin and her husband's (right) business partner.
The McCain campaign strongly condemned the report as false and threatened legal action.
The Enquirer was the first source to report on the affair of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, which he later admitted to.
If these allegations are proved true, it could derail Gov Palin's wild ride since she was announced as John McCain's running mate last Friday.
John McCain made a surprise appearance after Gov Palin's speech.
'Don't you think we made the right choice?' he asked the crowd. The delegates reacted with a standing ovation.
Tomorrow night, Sen McCain will officially accept his party's nomination, ending two weeks of conventions and kicking off the general election campaign.
US voters head to the polls on 4 November.
Day three of the Republican National Convention in photos here
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Democratic National Convention - Denver, CO
August 25-28 2008
Look at the Democratic Convention photo gallery here
Day 1:
US presidential candidate Barack Obama made his first appearance at the Democratic Convention three days ahead of schedule – just not in person.
Delegates and members of the media were surprised when Senator Obama's image was beamed into the convention centre via live satellite link-up from St Louis, Missouri where he is on the road campaigning.
The unexpected 'visit' by Mr Obama came last night at the end of wife Michelle's speech.
After the speech finished, the couple's two children came on stage and talked to their father over the live link-up.
Addressing the 4,000 delegates from across the US, Michelle Obama said her husband was running for president to end the war in Iraq responsibly, build an economy that 'lifted every family', and make good health care and education available for all Americans.
Her speech was well received by the delegates who rose to their feet clutching blue and white signs bearing her name when she appeared on stage for her prime-time address.
Michelle Obama's speech was the last of the evening and concluded the first day of events at the Democratic Convention.
Earlier in the evening, Senator Edward Kennedy made his first public appearance since recently undergoing brain surgery.
Mr Kennedy said he pledged that he 'would be there' in January at the inauguration of the next president of the US.
The Massachusetts Senator stressed there is a 'new wave of change' in the US.
'This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans,' Mr Kennedy said. 'With Barack Obama and for you and for me our country will be committed to his cause. The hope rises again and the dream lives on.'
Former US president Jimmy Carter also made an appearance at the convention but did not make a speech.
Mr Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is a high school teacher in Hawaii, spoke to delegates about growing up with her brother.
The convention will finish Thursday evening with an in-person appearance from Mr Obama.
Meanwhile a local news station in Denver reported that two people had been arrested in connection with a possible plot to kill Mr Obama.
The two men were arrested in a routine traffic incident. Two rifles, a high-powered telescopic scope and the powerful stimulant methamphetamine were reportedly seized.
Day one of the convention in photos
Day 2:
Hillary Clinton has urged the Democratic Party in the US to unite with a single purpose to elect Barack Obama.
The New York Senator was introduced in Denver tonight by daughter Chelsea while former US President Bill Clinton watched his wife's speech from the audience.
Advertisement'Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president,' she said.
Delegates from across the US held 'Hillary', 'Obama' and 'unity' signs during the speech at the Pepsi Centre.
Mrs Clinton thanked her supporters, her champions and her 'sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits'.
She reiterated her support for Mr Obama after listing the reasons why she ran for president.
Mrs Clinton said progress in the US would be impossible if 'we don't fight to put a Democrat in the White House'.
She said Mr Obama would end the war in Iraq responsibly, bring US troops home and restore US relations around the world.
The former First Lady also praised Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden and Mr Obama's wife Michelle.
She slamed Republican Party candidate John McCain saying that it is appropriate that he would be in the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis with US President George W Bush next week because she said 'these days they're awfully hard to tell apart'.
Earlier, In advance of her speech Mrs Clinton urged her supporters to help her put Barack Obama in the White House.
'I ask all of you who worked so hard for me, who knocked on doors and made those phone calls, who got in arguments from time to time ... to work as hard for Barack Obama as you did for me,' Senator Clinton told a luncheon crowd of about 2,500 who also heard from Obama's wife, Michelle.
'Let's work our hearts out to elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden our next president and vice president,' she said.
The second day of the convention focused on economic themes and began to discuss Mr Obama's plans to aid lower- and middle-class voters suffering in a faltering US economy, which polls show is the top issue in the final months of President George W Bush's term.
The convention's keynote speaker, filling the role that shot Mr Obama to political fame at the Democratic convention in Boston in 2004, was former Virginia Gov Mark Warner.
Earlier, defiant Hillary Clinton supporters marched through Denver in a final show of support for their beaten idol.
Despite the calls for a unified front heading into the election, it is clear that some of Senator Clinton's supporters will never be able to forgive Barack Obama for his hard-fought victory.
'We're here to say thank you to Hillary and to protest the fraud perpetrated on us by the Democratic National Committee," said Geoff Clunas, 51, of Seattle.
'It wasn't a contest, it was a foregone conclusion. They (the DNC leadership) just decided that Barack Obama was going to win.'
Mr Clunas, a life-long Democrat, said he would boycott this year's election because of the perceived unfairness of Clinton's defeat.
'It's going to be the first time since 1976 that I haven't voted. I just don't trust Obama. I think he'll do more harm than good.'
Meanwhile two 20-year-old convention delegates from Michigan -- a key state won by Clinton whose votes were initially excluded from the primary race -- said Obama would have their support.
'I'm disappointed, hurt and angry about Hillary, but I'm not deluded,' said Brandon Hayes. 'Four more years of a Bush presidency under McCain would be a disaster for our country.'
Fellow delegate Kelly Bernero added: 'We're not going to shoot ourselves in the foot in November. Hillary rocks but any true Democrat will vote for Obama.'
The convention will finish Thursday evening with an in-person appearance from Mr Obama.
Day two of the convention in photos
Day 3:
Barack Obama was officially nominated as the Democrats' presidential candidate.
The roll call of states and territories, a largely symbolic procedure following the long primary season, declared Sen Obama as the Democrats' choice to take on Republican John McCain.
It kicked off a night of high-profile speeches including a highly-anticipated one by former president Bill Clinton.
'The job of the next President is to rebuild the American Dream and restore America's standing in the world,' President Clinton said. 'Barack Obama is the man for this job.'
Mr Clinton had the tough task of enthusiastically endorsing Mr Obama after his less-than-supportive comments about his wife's opponent throughout the primary campaign.
Denver's Pepsi Center was packed to the ceiling with delegates, guests and journalists curious about his speech. They are also on hand to find out what vice presidential nominee Joe Biden will say in one hour.
Mr Biden is expected to play the role of 'attack dog' against Republican candidate John McCain, who has moved slightly ahead in some polls following weeks of Republican pounding of Mr Obama.
Mr Obama will speak tomorrow from a stage across the street, to a crowd of 80,000 people at Denver's pro football stadium.
Speaking at a veterans' round-table in Billings, Montana, Mr Obama said, 'We've had a great convention so far'.
‘We've had two powerful women speak back-to-back on each night, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton,’ he said.
Republicans, who have set up an outpost in Denver, have been trying to exploit any signs of Democratic division.
While conceding that Mrs Clinton made a strong speech last night, they reiterated the main thrust of their attack on Mr Obama: that the first-term senator is unprepared to be president.
Tonight Bill Clinton countered that argument head on when he said: 'Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world... (he) is ready to be President of the United States.'
Mr Clinton closed his speech by invoking his classic mantra: 'If, like me, you still believe America must always be a place called Hope, then join Hillary, Chelsea and me in making Senator Barack Obama the next President of the United States.'
He was then played off by a cover of the U2 song 'Beautiful Day.'
Day three of the convention in photos
Day 4:
Democrats are preparing a grand celebration for Barack Obama, who will accept a historic presidential nomination with a speech that spells out his vision for change in the US tonight.
Mr Obama, the first black presidential nominee of a major US party, will deliver the address in Denver's open-air football stadium before 75,000 supporters on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech - a landmark in the US civil rights movement.
The televised speech by Mr Obama, who was formally nominated yesterday will give the first-term Illinois senator his biggest national audience until he meets Republican rival John McCain in late September in the first of three face-to-face debates before the 4 November election.
The setting where Mr Obama will deliver his speech is an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.
Similar to structures used for rock concerts, it will be set up at the midpoint of Invesco Field.
Supporters will see Mr Obama appear from between plywood columns painted off-white to accept the party's nomination for president.
Presidential candidates at conventions past have typically spoken from the convention site itself, but the Obama campaign wanted to capitalise on the Illinois senator's populist appeal and allow members of the general public to witness his speech in person.
The last Democrat to make such a move was John F Kennedy in 1960 when he delivered his acceptance speech to 80,000 people in the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Once Mr Obama speaks, confetti will rain down on him and fireworks will be fired off from locations around the stadium wall.
Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson will sing the national anthem.
National conventions are often the first time voters start to pay attention to a presidential race.
Opinion polls show many voters are still unfamiliar with Mr Obama and concerned about his readiness for the job.
Republicans, who hold their own convention in St Paul, Minnesota next week to nominate the veteran 71-year-old Mr McCain, hammered on their theme that Mr Obama is unprepared and his soaring speeches mask a lack of substance.
Mr Obama is running even with Mr McCain in opinion polls.
The back to back-to-back nominating conventions will give voters a chance to compare and contrast.
Mr Obama's senior strategist, David Axelrod, told reporters the speech would focus on Mr Obama's vision for the country's future.
'He's going to lay out a case for change. He's going to set the stakes of this election, the risks of continuing down the road we're on which is plainly what Senator McCain is offering,' Mr Axelrod said.
Day three of the convention in photos
US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama savaged John McCain and 'broken' Republican politics before a crowd of 75,000 supporters in Denver, Colorado.
The final night of his party's convention was moved from a basketball arena to an American football stadium next door and opened up admission to the general public.
It was the first time any Democratic presidential nominee had done so since John F Kennedy in 1960 - and took place on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech.
Senator Obama cited Dr King during his speech, but not before he attacked his opponent.
‘America, we are better than these last eight years,’ Senator Obama said. ‘We are a better country than this.'
Mixing poetry with policy and handcuffing John McCain to President George W Bush, he added: 'This moment, this election, is our chance to keep in the 21st century the American promise alive.'
‘We are here because we love this country too much, to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4, we must stand up and say 'eight is enough'.'
Senator Obama held the massive crowd crammed into the open-air football stadium enthralled as he swept through his speech, punctuated by multiple standing ovations.
A barrage of multi-coloured fireworks and blizzard of confetti filled the Rocky Mountain skies when he finished.
Hitting new heights just four years after exploding onto the US political scene, Barack Obama gave notice he would fight back hard at a sustained volley of Republican assaults on his capabilities and patriotism.
He said John McCain did not understand the struggles of working Americans, as they see their jobs disappear abroad, living expenses rise, and prospects dim.
‘It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it,’ he said.
As thousands of supporters waved tiny US flags after being whipped into a frenzy by a pageant of patriotic songs, Mr Obama trumpeted: ‘I've got news for you, John McCain, we all put our country first.’
He furiously rebutted Republican claims ahead of the party's convention next week that he was too inexperienced to be US commander-in-chief.
‘Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe,’ he said.
‘The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans - Democrats and Republicans - have built and we are to restore that legacy.’
Mr Obama gave detailed policy prescriptions of what he would do as president, in the knowledge that many US citizens may have been tuning into his campaign for the first time.
He castigated President Bush and Mr McCain for bad judgement, saying his White House foe would not end the ‘misguided’ war in Iraq, and would make the US less safe with hawkish foreign policy.
‘If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it's not the change we need.’
At home, Mr Obama promised to stop tax breaks for the rich, and cut taxes for the middle class, and said he would break America's dependence on foreign oil in 10 years, and give every child a 'world class education.’
Evoking Martin Luther King Jr’s 1963 March on Washington speech, the Illinois senator said what ‘people of every creed and colour, from every walk of life’ heard ‘is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked, that together our dreams can be one.’
‘America, we cannot turn back.’
Mr McCain's campaign swiftly dismissed Senator Obama's speech.
‘Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meagre record of Barack Obama,’ said Mr McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds in a statement. ‘The fact remains, Barack Obama is still not ready to be president.’
Leaning heavily on his biography, as the mixed race son of a broken home, Mr Obama also sought to address the unlikely aspects of his audacious White House quest.
‘I get it, I realise that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office,’ he said. ‘I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
‘But I stand before you tonight because all across America, something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me, it's been about you.’
Meanwhile, US media reported this afternoon that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
Mr McCain and the Republicans begin their convention on Monday in St Paul, Minnesota.
Day four of the convention in photos here
Inside Invesco photos here
