The so-called bounce from the Democratic National Convention was par for the course for major party conventions, according to Gallup Poll results taken since 1964, the American Presidency Project reports. Based on polls taken the Sunday before the convention and the Sunday after, the Barack Obama-led presidential ticket rose by 6 percent; the average bump since 1964 has been ... 6 percent. Not all observers agree that the bounce has been on track — Politico.com wrote yesterday that Obama's bounce was smaller than usual, but then they're using Gallup tracking polls that exceed the time ... Read More

"When we speak of the future, the message is Geraldine Ferraro." That was the message of presidential candidate Walter Mondale as he accepted the 1984 Democratic nomination at his party's convention. He didn't clarify what he meant by that reference to his running mate, but presumably Ferraro's gender — she was the first woman even tapped by a major party for its White House ticket — was understood as a key component of his rhetoric. As far as the near future went, Fritz was a mediocre prognosticator. It wasn't until today, with Republican John McCain's selection of Alaskan Gov. ... Read More

Barack Obama will accept the nomination as the Democratic candidate for president tonight at Invesco Field, Denver's "Mile High Stadium" having been dubbed the "Temple of Obama" by opponents of the "rock star" candidate. By addressing the faithful in a venue better known for the Broncos' Orange Crush than nuanced political discourse, some observers recall the last acceptance speech given in a stadium — John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier" address delivered July 15, 1960, in Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum. Symbolically, most would see it as an auspicious comparison. But given Kennedy's ... Read More

The American Presidency Project hosts the presidential nomination acceptance speeches of Democratic and Republican candidates dating back to the beginning of the last century and, for the GOP, to James Garfield's acceptance letter in 1880. With at least one organization, Recreate '68, hoping to recall the positive spirit of the 1968 Democratic Party convention (no mean feat given its violent denouement), we take a look today at the speech given by Hubert Humphrey, then a senator from Minnesota, in accepting his party's nomination. The national convention followed the assassination of ... Read More

With the selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his vice presidential pick, Barack Obama has followed a tradition of more than six decades — Democratic presidential candidates choosing a member of Congress as their running mate. Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt tapped the haberdasher-turned-senator from Kansas City, Harry S. Truman, as his vice president in his bid for a fourth term, every donkey veep pick — insert asterisk here — has been a U.S. senator or, less likely, a U.S. representative. That roll call has included such luminaries as Kentucky's Alben Barkley in 1948, Alabama's John ... Read More