LAST BITS OF CONVENTION COVERAGE.

Obama's speech -- and much, though not all, of the convention -- was intended to normalize him in the eyes of swing voters to whom he seems alien, to draw a populist contrast between the two parties and their candidates, and to go after McCain's weak points -- and strong points.Obama has long since motivated his base, and his speech and the convention were not for them. Instead, he was wooing both working-class white voters and fence-sitting Hillary supporters. For the latter, Obama and other speakers stressed such themes as equal pay for equal work. But his speech was chiefly directed at those swing voters of the Rust Belt who turned to Republicans on social issues but who may come back to the Democrats on economics. This was clear not only in the issues that Obama raised in his speech but in those he didn't.

Kwame Brown, D.C. City Councilman
Tom Sheridan, Lobbyist for liberal non-profits
Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona
Bob Shrum, Speech Writer and Consultant
John King, CNN analyst
Bob Springmeyer, candidate for governor of Utah
Bracken Hendricks, clean-energy evangelist
Karen Brown and Bonnie Tierney, Clinton and McCain supporters.
Don Beyer, former Democratic VA gubernatorial candidate
Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party Chair
David Cicilline, Mayor of Providence
Nancy Ruth White, Clinton Delegate
Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL

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—The Editors