GOP Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon has found yet another way to tie himself to Barack Obama as he seeks re-election in this blue state, the Oregonian reports.

Smith has been running this ad for a while, replaying news footage of his dramatic turn against the Iraq War from right after the 2006 election:

It turns out his campaign bought ad time with local cable providers for it to run on CNN last night, at the first commercial break right after Barack Obama's acceptance speech.

Smith has previously run ads linking himself to Barack Obama and John Kerry, but this whole pattern seems to be getting even more ridiculous by the day.

That's the estimate of how many people watched Obama's acceptance speech last night, according to Nielsen -- and that doesn't include people who watched on PBS or C-Span.

That's more Americans than watched the Olympics opening ceremony, the season finale of American Idol, or the Oscars.

Today's Gallup tracking poll shows Barack Obama continuing to enjoy a convention bounce, and it may still be growing.

The numbers: Obama 49%, McCain 41%, well outside the ±2% margin of error. Yesterday, Obama was up by a 48%-42% margin, after having fallen behind McCain by two points in Gallup just as the convention was beginning. This morning's Rasmussen poll had Obama moving into a 49%-45% lead.

Note that this is a three-day sample that is just starting to take into account the impact from Bill Clinton's full-hearted endorsement of Obama, and we have yet to see any polling from after Obama's big speech last night.

Another major tracking poll is showing the start of a convention bounce for Barack Obama. The latest numbers from Rasmussen: Obama 49%, McCain 45%, with a ±2% margin of error, up from a 47%-47% tie yesterday.

Bear in mind that this is a three-day rolling poll that stopped sampling some time yesterday -- meaning we've only just begun to see the impact of Bill and Hillary Clintons' speeches, and no impact at all from after Obama's big victory speech last night.

Yesterday's Gallup poll also showed a convention bounce, with Obama taking a solid 48%-42% lead.

Stay tuned for today's Gallup tracking poll, due at 1 p.m.

The ultimate irony of tonight's speech may be that John McCain's attacks on Obama as a celeb lighweight may have actually forced Obama to make a stronger, more grounded, and more politically-effective speech than he otherwise might have.

Obama proved tonight -- again -- that he's one of the few most gifted public communicators of the last generation. But this time, he proved it by not excelling in soaring rhetoric or delivering a speech that will be remembered for the ages. Rather, he recognized that tonight's speech didn't have to be an effort to join the Rhetorical Hall of Fame.

Obama has been getting hammered for weeks now by Republicans as a puffed-up showman who loves the sound of his own voice when it fills stadiums. This clearly created some consternation among Dems and Obama advisers, and Obama adjusted accordingly.

No question, Obama hit plenty of emotional and rhetorical high notes as he ran through his bio and promised a tough fight with the Republicans. But the speech was strong because of its specificity -- because it laid out a detailed case as to why he's the right choice, and McCain's the wrong choice.

Indeed, the McCain campaign's response shows that the speech was effective. It said nothing whatsoever about the specifics that were in the speech. McCain's response could have been written before Obama ever delivered his speech:

"Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President."

Obama's speech was effective precisely because he adjusted to the circumstances created by the weeks-long relentless attack on him by McCain and the GOP. As a result, Obama made the choice between him and McCain as clear as he could have. How about that?

Video soon.

Late Update: Ben Smith aptly points out that the McCain campaign's sneering response to the speech seems at odds with the McCain ad released earlier today that promised to lay off the negativity for this special day.

To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;

With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest -- a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.

To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia -- I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.

Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story -- of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.

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The challenge for Al Gore is that criticizing the Bush years inevitably becomes a discussion of the 2000 election and a condemnation of the decision not to elect Gore (or not to grant him a big enough electoral victory so it couldn't be stolen from him).

But Gore directly embraces this aspect of the discussion, saying directly that we made the wrong choice in 2000. He evokes people's regret about choosing Bush over him as a way to infuse the current choice with even more emotional urgency:

Eight years ago, some said there was not much difference between the nominees of the two major parties and it didn't really matter who became president. Our nation was enjoying peace and prosperity. Some assumed we would continue both, no matter the outcome. But here we all are in 2008, and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn't matter.

Take it from me, if it had ended differently, we would not be bogged down in Iraq, we would have pursued bin Laden until we captured him. We would not be facing a self-inflicted economic crisis; we would be fighting for middle-income families. We would not be showing contempt for the Constitution; we'd be protecting the rights of every American regardless of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation. And we would not be denying the climate crisis; we'd be solving it.

Today, we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000, though it may be even more obvious now, because John McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of the Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them. The same policies all over again?

Gore's full speech after the jump.

Late Update: Here's video of Gore discussing 2000...

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Okay, a bit of a different post from your usual Election Central fare. Since we're listening to Stevie Wonder right now at the convention, here's another Wonder tune for anyone who's worried about how this election is going to turn out (one of my faves):

We've still got time to kill until the main event, so enjoy.

Some excerpts of Obama's speech have just been sent out by the campaign, and they suggest that tonight Obama will do what he's done to such great effect for the last 18 months: Insist that his audience think big; demand that we do better than we think we can.

And he'll fuse that demand with a sharply-worded critique of the GOP and its performance over the last eight years, as well as of McCain's policies.

"America, we are better than these last eight years," Obama will say. "We are a better country than this."

As he has many times in the past, Obama will demand that his audience see this election as a momentous historic choice, similar to other moments where the road of history has forked -- a reading that of course recommends him, but also has the virtue of being entirely accurate.

"We meet at one of those defining moments -- a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more," Obama will say.

Obama will argue that to choose the Republicans will be to take the wrong road at this crossroads of history.

"This moment -- this election -- is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive," he'll say. "Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: `Eight is enough.'

Obama, as expected, will also laud Bill Clinton's presidency, and hold it up as a yardstick of what the Democratic Party thinks of as progress.

"We Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country," Obama will say. "We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President -- when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush."

Obama will counter attacks on his national security readiness with the familiar evocation of Roosevelt and Kennedy.

"Don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country," he'll say. "Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe."

"As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home."

More excerpts after the jump.

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So here's the ad the McCain campaign has been hyping all day -- it's a spot that will run during tonight's speech in which McCain, directly addressing the camera, congratulates Obama for his achievement:

"Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America," McCain says, adding:

"How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, job well done."

The McCain campaign is releasing this spot seemingly designed to counter his growing image as the negative campaigner in this race on a day when there's no way to detract from the overwhelming historical resonance of Obama's appearance in any case.

Full script after the jump.

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Barack Obama might just might be getting a convention bounce, if today's Gallup tracking poll is to be believed.

The new numbers: Obama 48%, McCain 42%, outside the ±2% margin of error. Just two days ago, Gallup had McCain up 46%-44%.

The pollster's analysis points out there is a lag in polling as we wait for the bounce -- a given day's poll release doesn't include sampling that might reflect any reaction to speeches from the night before, so it took us until today just to see any impact from Hillary's Clinton's speech on Tuesday.

As such, we haven't yet seen the impact of Bill Clinton speech last night, and we'll need to wait for Saturday to see the impact from Obama's tonight -- and we're already seeing a bounce in Gallup..

A caveat: The Rasmussen tracking poll doesn't have any bounce yet -- Obama and McCain are tied at 47%-47%, not significantly changed from the past few days.

Many of you wrote in last night to say that John Kerry's speech was actually the sleeper hit of last night's festivities -- and many of you wanted a thread for it.

Well, ask and ye shall receive...

Where was this man in 2004?

Tonight: Obama's Acceptance Speech, And Good Weather
Barack Obama will give his big speech tonight at Invesco Field, ceremonially accepting the Democratic nomination before a packed football stadium on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. And Nature seems to be on his side: The weather forecast for Denver tonight predicts mild temperatures and no precipitation that might have ruined his outdoor speech.

Obama And Biden To Embark On Bus Tour After Convention
The full Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, plus their wives Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, will be heading off on a bus tour through three key swing states after the convention is over. The first stop is tomorrow in Beaver, Pennsylvania, with the tour set to also take them through Ohio and Michigan.

McCain In Ohio Tonight
John McCain will be traveling to Ohio tonight, where he's expected to kick off a pre-convention campaign swing that will include the announcement of his running mate. Press reports indicate that McCain has made his final decision of who his running mate will be, leaving us all to await the announcement.

Report: Rove Worked To Stop Potential Lieberman Veep Pick
Jonathan Martin reports that Karl Rove himself, concerned over John McCain's ability to hold on to the conservative base, approached Joe Lieberman and asked him to tell John McCain not to pick him for vie president. Lieberman reportedly turned down the request.

Connecticut Delegates Demand Lieberman Be Punished
The Hill reports that many Connecticut's delegates to the Democratic Convention are adamant that Joe Lieberman be punished by the Democratic Party for his support of John McCain. "I can't wait until we expand our majority in the Senate so he can be stripped of his committee," said Jennifer Just, a delegate from Woodbridge.

Bobby Rush: Obama Became A Better Pol After I Beat Him
Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, who easily turned back a primary challenge in 2000 from an unknown state senator named Barack Obama, told Roll Call that the 2000 race made Obama a better candidate: "He took the loss very seriously and the it taught him a little bit about humility. And I believe that it serves him well now -- having a humble spirit."

Terry Mac: I Might Run For Governor Of Virginia
Terry McAuliffe, who made his name this campaign as one of the most vociferous and entertaining spokespeople for Hillary Clinton, is apparently considering a run for governor of Virginia in 2009. If McAuliffe runs he will likely have to face a couple candidates who are already lining up support, but nobody can say he isn't energetic on the stump.

After Joe Biden's speech, Obama made a surprise appearance at the convention and hailed the Biden family while offering strong words of praise for, and reconciliation towards, both Clintons, on the last night that he'll be in the same venue as the two of them.

Obama's appearance was made possible by the fact that he's appearing elsewhere tomorrow -- at Invesco Field -- so an appearance here didn't risk shattering any of tomorrow's expected magic.

Obama's relaxed but rollicking appearance, coming after the good-natured and down-to-earth speech from Biden, was excellent political theater, projecting the sense that the extreme tensions of the primary have finally broken and the Democratic family is raucous and united, and full of energy.

Obama offered strong, but hardly over-the-top, praise to both Clintons.

"If I'm not mistaken, Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night," Obama shouted in a relaxed tone, while the two Clintons applauded.

Obama then offered a brief but powerful testament to Bill Clinton's presidency -- a moment that Bill and many others have been waiting for -- in the words of Bill himself.

"And just in case you were wondering, I think President Bill Clinton reminded us of what it's like when you've got a president who actually puts people first," Obama said, as Bill beamed. "Thank you, President Clinton."

It'll be interesting to see whether Obama offers a more extensive testimonial to Bill's presidency tomorrow. For now, suffice it to say that this was a very successful piece of political theater from a man whose extraordinary skills at public communication continue to astonish.

Meanwhile, Biden's speech was surprisingly tilted towards a populist economic critique of Bush and McCain, given that tonight was billed as national security night -- another sign that Biden's populist cred will allow him to be the lead attack-dog on the economy. Full text of Biden's speech after the jump.

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Hillary Clinton has just taken to the convention floor and moved to end the ceremonial roll call vote, officially nominating Barack Obama for president.

"With appreciation for the spirit and dedication of all who are gathered here, with eyes firmly fixed on the future," Hillary said, "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of unity, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."

Hillary then formally registered her motion, which then passed as expected, followed by Nancy Pelosi announcing that Obama has informed the convention that he accepts the nomination -- making Obama the first African-American to be nominated by a major party for president.

Late Update: Here's the video:

You've no doubt heard about the GOP's valient efforts to make an issue today out of this Reuters story reporting that Obama will make his Thursday speech before a reproduction of "an elaborately columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple."

The Republican National Committee blasted the news out to reporters under the title "audacity watch." Lots of wingers have been chortling about this, too. We assume the idea, if you can call it that, is to suggest Obama believes he's a Greek god or something like that. You know, celeb meets the ancient Greeks. Get it?

But of course, as Ben Smith notes, in 2004 Bush accepted his nomination before a backdrop of Greek revival columns, too. Here's an image:

This 2004 ceremony, of course, would have been partly produced by none other than the RNC.

It looks like the Obama campaign is wielding a sharp editing pen over the speeches Dems are giving at the convention.

Dennis Kucinich, for one, found one of his more barbed raw-meat partisan quips consigned to the cutting room floor:

The Obama campaign struck just one line from his speech, which slammed the Republicans and the Bush administration, according to a Democratic source.

That line, addressing Republicans, read: "They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20."

To be fair, calling for McCain, Bush and Cheney to be thrown in the slammer isn't exactly in sync with Obama's message of new politics and bipartisan reconciliation.

New McCain Ad: Obama "Dangerously Unprepared" To Deal With Iran
The McCain campaign has a new ad out, which the campaign says will run in "key states," attacking Obama as "dangerously unprepared to be president" and confront the threat of Iran. The ad -- and it's a good question whether this will seriously run anywhere -- seems tailor-made to counter today's Dem convention theme of national security:

Tonight: Bill Clinton And Joe Biden To Address Convention
Tonight's theme for the Democratic Convention is national security, but two speakers in particular will get the most attention: Bill Clinton, who will have the tough job of following Hillary's speech for unity from last night, and Joe Biden, whose role will be to tear into John McCain as Barack Obama's running mate.

Obama In Montana Today
Barack Obama is campaigning today in Billings, Montana, a state that has been improbably brought into contention this election season.

McCain Off The Trail Today
John McCain does not have any announced public events for today.

NYT: Obama Camp Falling Short Of Fundraising Goals
The New York Times reports that the Obama campaign's fundraising totals, while impressive, are not enough to truly make it worth the time and effort he has to spend on fundraising in order to make up for the public money he has foregone. A source of the problem: Anemic fundraising from former Hillary Clinton donors, who only give about $4 million in June and July.

Don Young Just Barely Ahead In Alaska Primary
After a close vote count all night long, scandal-plagued GOP Rep. Don Young of Alaska seems to be just barely fending off primary challenger Sean Parnell -- which would drastically raise the Dems' chances of winning this seat in a deep-red state. With 97.9% of precincts reporting, Young is ahead by 145 votes out of nearly 85,000 between the two of them, and only nine precincts have yet to report.

Poll: McCain Ahead In Florida
A new poll of Florida from Strategic Vision (R) gives John McCain a 49%-42% lead in this big swing state. Recent polls have all given McCain the edge here, though his lead in this poll is a bit bigger than in the others.

Poll: Freshman Dem Faces Tight Race In Deep-Red District
A new SurveyUSA poll shows freshman Dem Congressman Chris Carney, who won his rural Pennsylvania district in 2006 thanks to the incumbent's scandals, is in a very tight race against his Republican opponent. Carney has 49% against GOP nominee Chris Hackett's 45%, within the ±4% margin of error.

...wasn't really the keynote speech of the convention at all. It was the warm-up to the main event of the evening, which is coming soon.

Warner made some noise yesterday about possibly sounding a "bipartisan" message that would upset his partisan audience, causing consternation among some Dems who worried that Warner might undercut efforts to draw a sharp contrast with McCain.

Warner, it's true, didn't really draw a meaningfully sharp contrast with McCain, though he uncorked a few predictable lines about us not being able to afford four more years of Bush policies.

But rather than ideologically stiff-arm the left, Warner, who has succeeded in a historically red state by playing the role of post-partisan technocrat, sounded mostly predictable bipartisan tones that weren't at all out of sync with Obama's talk about reaching across party lines to get things done, etc., etc.

Full text of Warner's speech here.

As I've noted before, it's impossible to write an item about former Hillary supporter Ed Rendell without using the word "blunt," and this blunt assessment of Obama from Rendell certainly won't quiet the talk of tensions between the Hillary and Obama camps:

"He is a little like Adlai Stevenson," Rendell mused. "You ask him a question, and he gives you a six-minute answer. And the six-minute answer is smart as all get out. It's intellectual. It's well framed. It takes care of all the contingencies. But it's a lousy soundbite."

"We've got to start smacking back in short understandable bites," he said, noting "Everybody is nervous as all get out. Everybody says we ought to be ahead by 10, 15 points. What the heck is going on?"

Coming from the rough-hewn Rendell, the Stevenson comparison is presumably not meant as a full-throated compliment.

Rendell also said some good things about Obama, however, saying that by the end of tonight Obama will have locked down 95 percent of Hillary's supporters and predicting that the selection of Joe Biden as veep will gain Obama two points in Pennsylvania.

Late Update: In retrospect, it really isn't fair to cast this as a sign of Hillary-Obama tensions. Rendell's just giving voice to sentiments some Dems are expressing privately, and for Rendell the line between private and public is a bit blurrier. My brain is addled with too much MSNBC.

Uh oh. Today's Gallup tracking poll finds John McCain with a slim edge over Barack Obama -- the first time ever that McCain has led in their tracking poll since Obama sewed up the Democratic nomination June.

The numbers: McCain 46%, Obama 44%, with a ±2% margin of error.

A caveat: This poll was conducted almost entirely before last night's big convention speeches by Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy.

This is causing some consternation in Dem circles today:

Former Gov. Mark Warner plans to offer a lesson in Virginia-style bipartisanship to thousands of hardcore Democrats in his convention keynote speech Tuesday night.

"There may be parts of the speech that aren't going to get a lot of applause," Warner said Monday, "but I've got to say what I believe will get our country back on the right path."...

For Mark Warner, who is seeking the Senate seat of retiring Republican John Warner, a red-meat speech that would bring the party's most passionate warriors to their feet in Denver would undermine a carefully cultivated image at home that has given him a strong lead in statewide polls and a lopsided fundraising advantage.

It's hard to say from the AP's reporting what exactly Warner is going to say. But the chatter in Dem circles is that if Warner does undermine the power of the Dems' partisan message tonight to some degree, it could muddle efforts to draw the contrast with McCain as sharply as is necessary.

With yesterday's convention largely a Teddy-Michelle love-fest, and Clintons speaking today and tomorrow, more sharp contrasting with McCain is what's called for right about now. Not less.