Obama deals gently with Palin on equal pay issue

Obama deals gently with Palin on equal pay issue

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., with his running mate vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., speaks about the economy at Toledo Lucas County Public Library in Toledo, Ohio, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Barack Obama seems to have only one problem with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president: She holds the same positions as John McCain, the GOP presidential candidate who tapped her.

That may seem like a "well, duh" observation on his part, but Obama has tiptoed carefully around Palin as he tries to attract female voters. So far he has criticized her only for her ties to McCain.

On Sunday, the Democratic nominee seemed eager to blunt Palin's possible appeal to undecided women, but again, indirectly.

"We're going to make sure that equal pay for equal work is a reality in this country," Obama said at an economic forum in Toledo, Ohio, a battleground state this fall. Alluding to Palin without saying her name, he told about 200 people sitting on a sun-drenched office rooftop that she "seems like a very engaging person, nice person. But I've got to say, she's opposed, like John McCain is, to equal pay for equal work. That doesn't make much sense to me."

Obama, sharing the stage with running mate Joe Biden, has often criticized McCain's stand on a failed Senate bill called the Fair Pay Restoration Act. It essentially would have reversed a 5-4 Supreme Court decision holding that a woman had only 180 days to formally complain that she was paid less than male colleagues for the same work.

Obama, who co-sponsored the bill, says such barriers should be eased.

McCain missed the Senate vote, but said at the time: "I am all in favor of pay equity for women. But this kind of legislation ... opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems."

Some of Obama's supporters and spokesmen have been less gentle with Palin, noting that she has been governor only two years and has little if any foreign policy experience.

Obama, who attended church Sunday in Lima, Ohio, promised to bring jobs to hard-pressed sections of the state.

"We're going to invest $15 billion a year in making highly efficient cars of the future right here in Ohio, right here in America," he said to loud cheers. He promised to help create plants to produce "windmills and solar panels and biofuels, right here in Ohio, creating millions of jobs that can't be exported."

He and Biden, who jumped in a few times to help answer questions from the audience, said they would pay for their initiatives partly by ending some of the Bush administration's tax cuts for high earners.

The McCain campaign said Sunday that the presidential candidate and Palin support equal pay for women even though they do not think the 180-day limit for filing complaints should be changed.

As Gustav nears, New Orleans becomes a ghost town

As Gustav nears, New Orleans becomes a ghost town

Mike Mayeux, left, and roommate Becky McMurtry walk by their boarded up house as the Gulf Coast prepares for Hurricane Gustav, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008, in Lafayette, Texas.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- With Hurricane Gustav just a day away from a possible monster hit on New Orleans, the mayor Sunday pleaded with the last of its residents to get out, imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on those who stay and warned looters they will be sent directly to prison.

The Big Easy increasingly took on the eeriness of a ghost town as thousands heeded a mandatory evacuation order, and police and National Guard troops clamped down on the city to prevent the kind of lawlessness and chaos that followed Katrina three years ago.

"Looters will go directly to jail. You will not get a pass this time," Mayor Ray Nagin said. "You will not have a temporary stay in the city. You will go directly to the Big House."

Most were taking him seriously. The state changed traffic flow so all highway lanes led out of New Orleans, and cars were packed bumper-to-bumper. Stores and restaurants shut down, hotels closed and windows were boarded up. Some who planned to stay changed their mind at the last second, not willing to risk the worst.

"I got scared at the last minute," said Ollie Hilson, 54, of Marrero, a town on the west bank of the Mississippi River. She was waiting for a bus in a gymnasium where the New Orleans Hornets practice. She had a single plastic grocery bag with a change of clothes and a few personal belongings, and waited with her two nieces and their four children, all under the age of 3. "I was worried about the kids. We just couldn't stay."

Col. Mike Edmondson, state police commander, said he believed more than 90 percent of the coastal Louisiana population had fled - the largest evacuation in state history.

Nagin has used stark language to get his message across to residents, calling Gustav the "mother of all storms." Emergency officials have repeatedly warned that those who stay are on their own, and there will be no shelter of refuge like in Katrina, when thousands waited helplessly for rescue in a squalid Superdome.

Though his threats were dire, it was unmistakable that Gustav posed a major threat to partially rebuilt New Orleans. The storm has already killed more than 80 people on its path through the Caribbean. And there are fears about how much the levees, which breached during Katrina, can take.

Large areas of southeast Louisiana, including sections in the greater New Orleans area, that are protected by levees face being flooding by several feet of water, according to Gustav surge models. Gustav appears likely to overwhelm the system of levees west of the city that have for decades been under-funded and neglected even as the population has grown.

The Army Corps of Engineers has stockpiled steel pilings, sandbags and metal baskets filled with sand in the event that emergency repairs are needed to fill in breaches. Heavy duty helicopters capable of dropping sandbags are on standby.

Barreling toward the Gulf Coast with frightening strength and size, Gustav was a Category 3 hurricane with winds extending out 65 miles and tropical storm force winds as far as 220 miles. Category 3 storms have winds between 111 mph and 130 mph; Category 4 storms can have winds as fierce as 155 mph.

The storm, which could make landfall Monday morning, could bring a storm surge of up to 14 feet to the coast and rainfall totals of up to 20 inches.

President Bush, who was faulted for a sluggish and inadequate federal response to Hurricane Katrina, canceled his appearance at the Republican National Convention and will instead travel to Texas to meet with emergency response personnel preparing for Gustav. He also said he hoped to travel to Louisiana when conditions permit.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff arrived in the region Sunday and planned to stay for the duration of the storm. At an evacuation center in Houma, he said he was happy to see an almost 100 percent evacuation and told a bus full of those fleeing: "You made the right choice getting on this bus."

At 5 p.m. EDT Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Gustav was a Category 3 storm centered about 215 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving northwest near 18 mph. It had top sustained winds of around 115 mph. It had weakened slightly, but forecasters said some reintensification was possible by Monday.

A hurricane warning was in effect for more than 500 miles of the Gulf Coast from High Island, Texas, to the Alabama-Florida state line. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued a mandatory evacuation order for some coastal areas of Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Residents in flood-prone southeast Texas fled, too. Sabine Pass a port city most recently battered three years ago by Hurricane Rita, was among the first communities ordered to leave. Port Arthur, Texas, a refinery town of about 57,000 also badly damaged during Rita, was virtually abandoned.

In New Orleans, the last bus carrying residents without a way to leave on their own would depart at 3 p.m. Sunday. Clouds were already rolling in, and the skies were beginning to darken. Rain could begin falling as early as Sunday night.

Melissa Lee, who lives in Pearl River, a town near the boundary of Mississippi and Louisiana, was driving to Florida Sunday. Before she left, she heard neighbors chopping down trees with chain saws, trying to ensure the tall pines that surrounded their homes wouldn't come crashing down.

"I sent my son out with a camera and said, `Go take pictures of our backyard. Because it's going to look different when we get back.'"

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Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey, Cain Burdeau, Alan Sayre, Allen G. Breed, Mary Foster and Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report from New Orleans. Vicki Smith in Houma, Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge and Michael Kunzelman in Lafayette also contributed. Kelli Kennedy reported from Miami.

New Orleans orders mandatory evacuation

New Orleans orders mandatory evacuation

Traffic creeps along the eastbound lanes of I-10 as Gulf Coast residents from Mississippi and Louisiana try to get a head of the surge, winds and rain accompanying Hurricane Gustav, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008, near Diamondhead, Miss.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday - even before the official order came for New Orleans residents to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana.

Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars - clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.

The evacuation of New Orleans becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday along the vulnerable west bank of the Mississippi River, and at noon on the east bank. Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

"This is the real deal, this is not a test," Nagin said as he issued the order, warning residents that staying would be "one of the biggest mistakes you could make in your life." He emphasized that the city will not offer emergency services to anyone who chooses to stay behind.

Nagin did not immediately order a curfew, which would allow officials to arrest residents if they are not on their property.

Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between East Texas and western Mississippi.

The storm's center moved into the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba late Saturday and at 11 p.m. EDT was about 530 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Top winds were near 140 mph and likely to strengthen.

Forecasters warned it was too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said they were surprised at how quickly Gustav gained strength as it slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in about 24 hours, and was likely to become a Category 5 - with sustained winds of 156 mph or more - by Sunday.

"That puts a different light on our evacuations and hopefully that will send a very clear message to the people in the Gulf Coast to really pay attention," said Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison.

Levee building on the city's west bank was incomplete, Nagin said. A storm surge of 15 to 20 feet would pour through canals and flood the neighborhood and neighboring Jefferson Parish, he said.

Nagin estimated that about half the population had left and admitted officials were worried that some people would try to stay.

Even before the evacuation order, hotels closed, and the airport prepared to follow suit.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff planned to travel to Louisiana on Sunday to observe preparations. Also, likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, are traveling to Mississippi on Sunday to check on people getting prepared.

As part of the evacuation plan New Orleans developed after Katrina, residents who had no other way to get out of the city waited on a line that snaked for more than a mile through the parking lot of the city's main transit terminal. From there, they were boarding motor coaches bound for shelters in north Louisiana. The city expects to move out about 30,000 such residents by Sunday.

"I don't like it," said Joseph Jones Jr., 61, who draped a towel over his head to block the blazing sun. "Going someplace you don't know, people you don't know. And then when you come back, is your house going to be OK?"

Others led children or pushed strollers with one hand and pulled luggage with the other. Volunteers handed out bottled water, and medics were nearby in case people became sick from the heat.

Unlike Katrina, when thousands took refuge inside the Superdome, there will be no "last resort" shelter. "You will be on your own," Nagin said.

About 1,500 National Guard troops were in the region, and soldiers were expected to help augment about 1,400 New Orleans police officers in helping patrol and secure the city.

Standing outside his restaurant in the city's Faubourg Marigny district, Dale DeBruyne prepared for Gustav the way he did for Katrina - stubbornly.

"I'm not leaving," he said.

DeBruyne, 52, said his house was stocked with storm supplies, including generators.

"I stayed for Katrina," he said, "and I'll stay again."

Many residents said the early stage of the evacuation was more orderly than Katrina, although a plan to electronically log and track evacuees with a bar code system failed and was aborted to keep the buses moving. Officials said information on evacuees would be taken when they reached their destinations.

Advocates criticized the decision not to establish a shelter, warning that day laborers and the poorest residents would fall through the cracks.

About two dozen Hispanic men gathered under oak trees near Claiborne Avenue. They were wary of boarding any bus, even though a city spokesman said no identity papers would be required.

"The problem is," said Pictor Soto, 44, of Peru, "there will be immigration people there and we're all undocumented."

Farther west, where Gustav appeared more likely to make landfall, Guard troops were also being sent to Lake Charles.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and part of Texas, meaning hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Two East Texas counties also issued mandatory evacuation orders, and authorities in Mississippi began evacuating the mentally ill and aged from facilities along the coast.

National Guard soldiers on Mississippi's coast were going door-to-door to alert thousands of families in FEMA trailers and cottages that they should be prepared to evacuate Sunday.

In Alabama, shelters were opened and 3,000 National Guard personnel assembled to help evacuees from Mississippi and Louisiana.

"If we don't get the wind and rain, we stand ready to help them," Gov. Bob Riley said.

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Associated Press writers Peter Prengaman, Janet McConnaughey, Alan Sayre, Allen G. Breed, Mary Foster and Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report from New Orleans. Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge, La., and Michael Kunzelman in Gulfport, Miss., also contributed.

Gustav slams Cuba as massive Category 4 hurricane

Gustav slams Cuba as massive Category 4 hurricane

Waves caused by the approaching Hurricane Gustav hit the sea front of Havana's 'Malecon' , Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. Gustav swelled to a fearsome Category 3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph (195 kph) as it shrieked toward the heartland of Cuba's cigar industry Saturday on a track to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, three years after Hurricane Katrina.

HAVANA (AP) -- Gustav slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane Saturday, destroying homes and roads as it roared toward the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, where the authorities order an evacuation of the city.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short of becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane when it hit Cuba's mainland after passing over its Isla de la Juventud province. At least 300,000 people were evacuated from the storm's path in Cuba.

On the Isla de la Juventud, an island of 87,000 people south of mainland Cuba also known as the Isle of Youth, Gustav's screaming 140 mph (220 kph) winds toppled telephone poles, mango and almond trees and peeled back the tin roofs of homes.

Civil defense chief Ana Isla said there were "many people injured" on the Isla de la Juventud, but no reports of deaths. She said nearly all of the island's roads were washed out and that some regions were heavily flooded.

"It's been very difficult here," she said on state television.

By late Saturday night, Gustav's eye had crossed over Cuba into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav had weakened slightly, but was expected to regain strength on Sunday, possibly becoming a Category 5 hurricane with winds above 155 mph (249 kph) as it spins toward the U.S. coast, where it was expected to make landfall on Monday.

A hurricane watch was issued from Texas east to the Florida-Alabama border.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the mandatory evacuation of the city, turning informal advice to flee from the approaching Gustav into an official order to get out.

More than a million Americans made wary by Hurricane Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people in 2005.

Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

City officials began putting an estimated 30,000 elderly, disabled or poor residents on buses and trains for evacuation.

Gustav already has killed 81 people by triggering floods and landslides in other Caribbean nations.

The center said Gustav was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Havana late Saturday night and it was moving northwest near 15 mph (24 kph).

Cuba's top meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the hurricane's massive center made landfall in mainland Cuba near the community of Los Palacios in Pinar del Rio - a region that produces much of the tobacco used to make Cuba's famed cigars. There, the storm knocked down power lines, shattered windows and blew the roofs off some small homes.

Rubiera said the storm brought hurricane-force winds to much of the western part of Havana, where power was knocked out as winds blasted sheets of rain sideways though the streets and whipped angry waves against the famed seaside Malecon boulevard.

Felled tree branches and large chunks of muddy earth littered roads that were largely deserted overnight.

Cuba grounded all domestic flights and halted all buses and trains to and from Havana, where some shuttered stores had hand-scrawled "closed for evacuation" signs plastered to their doors.

Authorities boarded up banks, restaurants and hotels, and residents nailed bits of plywood to the windows and doors of their houses and apartments.

"It's very big and we've got to get ready for what's coming," said Jesus Hernandez, a 60-year-old retiree who was using an electric drill to reinforce the roof of his rickety front porch.

In tourist-friendly Old Havana, heavy winds and rain battered crumbling historic buildings. There were no immediate reports of major damage, but a scaffolding erected against a building adjacent to the Plaza de Armas was leaning at a dangerous angle.

Lidia Morral and her husband were visiting Cuba from Barcelona, Spain. She said Gustav forced officials to close the beaches the couple wanted to visit in Santiago, on the island's eastern tip earlier in the week. The storm also prevented them from catching a ferry from Havana to the Isla de la Juventud on Saturday.

"It's been following us all over Cuba, ruining our vacation," said Morral, who was in line at a travel agency, trying to make other plans. "They have closed everything, hotels, restaurants, bars, museums. There's not much to do but wait."

In the Gulf of Mexico, where about 35,000 people work staffing offshore rigs and production facilities, among other tasks, oil companies wrapped up evacuations in preparation for the storm.

As of midday Saturday, more than three-fourths of the Gulf's oil production and nearly 40 percent of its natural gas output had been shut down, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore activity.

The U.S. Gulf Coast accounts for about 25 percent of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output, according to the MMS. The Gulf Coast also is home to nearly half the nation's refining capacity.

Analysts say prolonged supply disruptions could cause a sudden price uptick for gasoline and other petroleum products.

On Friday, Gustav rolled over the Cayman Islands with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines while destroying docks and tossing boats ashore, but there was little major damage and no deaths were reported.

Haiti's Interior Ministry on Saturday raised the hurricane death toll there to 66 from 59 and Jamaica raised its count to seven from four. Gustav also killed eight people in the Dominican Republic early in the week.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center said Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to near the Turks and Caicos Islands late Sunday or on Monday, then curl through the Bahamas by early next week before possibly threatening Cuba.

As it spun over open waters, Hanna had sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph) Saturday evening and the hurricane center warned that it could kick up dangerous rip currents along parts of the southeastern U.S. coast.

The U.S. State Department urged Americans to be aware of the risks caused by Hanna to people traveling to the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It urged U.S. citizens lacking safe shelter to consider leaving while flights are still available.

Jankovic works overtime, makes 4th round at Open

Jankovic works overtime, makes 4th round at Open

Jelena Jankovic of Serbia serves to Zheng Jie of China during their match at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic won another sneaker squeaker, playing 28 points in the last game to finish off Zheng Jie 7-5, 7-5 Friday and reach the fourth round at the U.S. Open.

"You're not there in a picnic," Jankovic said.

A day after top-seeded Ana Ivanovic was upset by 188th-ranked Julie Coin, the favorites restored order to Flushing Meadows.

Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko and Elena Dementieva won in straight sets. Novak Djokovic played later, and the night session featured Andy Roddick, along with No. 23 Lindsay Davenport taking on No. 12 Marion Bartoli.

Jankovic came out full of energy, showing no ill effects of a bad left leg that cramped after she played Wednesday. She bounded back and forth and, in her trademark style, often came to screeching stops while doing the splits to reach shots.

"As long as I'm doing the splits, that means I'm healthy," she said. "When I'm not doing the splits, you know there's something wrong."

"I'm not too sure about my body if I go into a split, who knows if I'll come back up?" she said.

Still waiting for that elusive big win, Jankovic is trying to reach her first Grand Slam final. She needs three more wins- with Justine Henin retired, Maria Sharapova hurt, Ivanovic out and the Williams sisters in the opposite bracket, this figures to be her best chance.

Jankovic had five match points in the final game, which went to deuce 11 times. She needed a bit of a break before her last serve; in her previous match, she chided her opponent for not being ready to receive soon enough.

"I wish I didn't have any drama in my matches. I wish I would win nice and in a simple way," she said. "Who likes drama? Do you know anybody that likes to get involved into tight matches?"

Jankovic needed more than two hours to beat the 37th-ranked Zheng after playing for nearly three hours in the second round. Plus, the Serbian star was scheduled to play mixed doubles later in the day.

Jankovic is one of six women who still have a chance to be ranked No. 1 after the Open, with Ivanovic among them despite her loss.

Coin pulled an upset for the record books. Not since the WTA computer rankings started in 1975 had a woman ranked so low beaten a reigning world No. 1.

Trying for his fifth straight U.S. Open title, the second-seeded Federer swept Thiago Alves 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Even though the 137th-ranked Alves was a qualifier playing his first tour-level event this year, it wasn't a breeze.

"The depth in men's tennis is immense," Federer said.

Fifth-seeded Davydenko beat Agustin Calleri 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (2), and No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez defeated Bobby Reynolds 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4.

Dementieva, the Olympic champion and No. 5 seed, beat Anne Keothavong of Britain, 6-3, 6-4.

Gilles Muller and Jarkko Nieminen each rallied from two sets down to win. Muller, who once beat Roddick at the U.S. Open and Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, defeated Tommy Haas 2-6, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-3, and Nieminen topped Ivo Minar 6-7 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

Obama, McCain vie for suburbanites, white women

Obama, McCain vie for suburbanites, white women

Kathy Melkey poses at her home in Granby, Conn., Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. Melkey stands astride some of the fault lines between Barack Obama and John McCain. The 49-year-old substitute teacher from Granby, Conn., is a white woman, an independent and a suburbanite. Each of those groups is closely divided between the two presidential candidates. "I'm waiting for somebody to wow me here," said Melkey, who says she likes Obama but could change her mind.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Kathy Melkey stands astride some of the fault lines between Barack Obama and John McCain.

The 49-year-old substitute teacher from Granby, Conn., is a white woman, an independent and a suburbanite. Each of those groups is closely divided between the two presidential candidates.

"I'm waiting for somebody to wow me here," said Melkey, who says she likes Obama but could change her mind.

Polls indicate a close race. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll and other surveys taken before the Democratic and Republican conventions provide a look at how Obama and McCain are doing with blocs of voters.

MCCAIN'S STRENGTHS

The 72-year-old Republican senator from Arizona and Vietnam War prisoner is doing strongly with whites, older voters and several types of men. But there's little evidence he is benefiting much from the age and racial contrasts between himself and Obama, 47, who would become the first African-American president.

McCain's 10 percentage point lead among whites in the AP-Ipsos poll is 7 points less than President Bush's margin with the group in 2004 and similar to Bush's 12-point advantage in 2000. His 9-point lead among those age 65 and older is significant - they tend to vote in high numbers - but is about the same Bush did in 2004.

McCain and Obama, the Illinois senator, are running about evenly among men. McCain is up by 17 points with white men - less than Bush's margins in both his victories. The Republican leads by 16 points with married men and 10 points with suburban men - similar to Bush's edge in each category in 2004 and 2000.

McCain leads by 11 points among whites who've not completed college - a group Obama lost badly in the Democratic primaries to Hillary Rodham Clinton. McCain's edge is not as strong as Bush's 23-point margin with that group in 2004 and his 17-point advantage in 2000. As expected for a GOP candidate, McCain is dominating white evangelical voters.

OBAMA'S STRENGTHS

As in the primaries, Obama is supported by about nine in 10 blacks, according to recent ABC News-Washington Post and Pew Research Center polls. That's about how Democrats John Kerry and Al Gore did in 2004 and 2000 respectively. To benefit more from black loyalty, Obama will have to increase their turnout above the 11 percent of voters they comprised in 2004.

Obama also has large leads among Hispanics and people under age 30, in both cases outdoing Kerry's 2004 performances.

Obama's advantage among women was 13 points in the AP-Ipsos poll - 10 points better than Kerry did. Obama and McCain are about even among white women and the Democrat leads among suburban women - both improvements over 2004. The survey was taken before McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

To capitalize on Obama's appeal to female voters, campaign spokesman Bill Burton says they will emphasize McCain's anti-abortion views to make it hard for him "to climb his way out of the real problem he has with women."

WEAKNESSES

Obama is laboring to win over Clinton's supporters. She used an emotional speech to the convention Tuesday to call him "my candidate." Pew and ABC-Post surveys found seven in 10 of her backers behind Obama while a CBS News-New York Times poll found six in 10 - ominous numbers for Obama, even though those polls were conducted before the convention. McCain has churned out television ads aimed at prying those voters away from Obama.

McCain, who defied Bush on campaign finance and other issues, has a 38-point lead among conservatives - a big edge but well behind Bush's 69-point margin in 2004.

About three-fourths of Democrats back Obama and the same number of Republicans support McCain - significantly below the nine in 10 votes exit polls show both Kerry and Bush got from their own parties four years ago.

BATTLEGROUNDS

Independents are closely split between McCain and Obama. Kerry and Bush finished even among this group in 2004, and Bush won them by 2 points in 2000. Mike DuHaine, McCain's political director, said the campaign's focus will be on the broad group of voters in the political middle.

"The battle in this election will be very much among independent swing voters" and other centrists like conservative and moderate Democrats, said DuHaine.

Suburban voters are divided evenly, as usual in recent presidential elections, but there are gender differences. McCain leads by 10 points among suburban men in the AP-Ipsos survey, while Obama has roughly the same advantage with suburban women.

Catholics, often pivotal, are divided closely between the rivals. The ABC-Post poll shows McCain ahead by 11 points among white Catholics.

The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted July 31-Aug. 4 and included telephone interviews with 833 registered voters, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

McCain taps Alaska governor for VP

McCain taps Alaska governor for VP

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Republican John McCain introduced first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate Friday, a stunning selection of a fellow maverick designed to get an edge in the increasingly competitive White House race.

"She's exactly who I need. She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of 'Me first and country second,' " McCain declared as the pair stood together for the first time at a boisterous rally in Ohio just days before the opening of the party's national convention.

Palin, the first Republican woman on a presidential ticket, promised: "I'm going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background in every political party, or no party at all."

"... Politics isn't just a game of competing interests and clashing parties," added the Palin, 44, who has built her career in large measure by challenging fellow Republicans.

In the increasingly intensive presidential campaign, McCain made his selection six days after his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, named Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as his No. 2 on the ticket.

The contrast between the two announcements was remarkable - Obama, 47, picked a 65-year-old running mate with long experience in government and a man whom he said was qualified to be president. The timing of McCain's selection appeared designed to limit any political gain Obama derives from his own convention, which ended Thursday night with his nominating acceptance speech before an estimated 84,000 in Invesco Field in Colorado.

Public opinion polls show a close race between Obama and McCain, and with scarcely two months remaining until the election, neither contender can allow the other to jump out to a big post-convention lead.

On his 72nd birthday, McCain chose a woman younger than two of the Arizonan's seven children and a person who until recently was the mayor of small-town Wasilla, Alaska and has been governor less than two years.

The Obama campaign immediately questioned whether she would be prepared to step in and be president if necessary.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Obama, said in a written statement.

President Bush complimented McCain for "an exciting decision."

"Governor Palin is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government," a presidential statement said. "By selecting a working mother with a track record of getting things done, Senator McCain has once again demonstrated his commitment to reforming Washington."

"It's an absolutely brilliant choice," said Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law. "This will absolutely energize McCain's campaign and energize conservatives," he predicted.

Palin's name had not been on the short list of people heavily reported upon by the news media in recent days, and McCain's decision was a well-kept secret until just a couple hours before Friday's rally.

McCain's campaign said that Palin and a top aide met with senior McCain advisers in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Wednesday night. The next morning, the campaign said McCain formally invited Palin to join the ticket on the deck of McCain's home near Sedona, Ariz., and later Thursday the governor flew to Middleton, Ohio, with staff to await Friday's event in Dayton.

Describing the process that led to her selection, Palin told reporters she'd received word that she was McCain's choice on Thursday and had met privately with him that day to discuss it. She spoke briefly as the two running mates surprised shoppers at the Buckeye Corner in Columbus, Ohio, where they purchased Ohio State University sports memorabilia. McCain and Palin started a bus tour across Ohio and to Pittsburgh, where they will hold a campaign rally Saturday. Ohio and Pennsylvania are two states that figure prominently in who wins the election this fall.

Sharyl Odenweller, a retired teacher from Delphos, Ohio who was visiting the store, said she was pleased that McCain had chosen a woman and someone "very pro life." But, Odenweller also said, "I'd like to know more about her experience. If something happened to him, would she be qualified to step into the presidency?"

With his pick, McCain passed over more prominent contenders like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as well as others such as former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, whose support for abortion rights might have sparked unrest at the convention that opens Monday in St. Paul, Minn.

A self-styled hockey mom and political reformer, Palin became governor after ousting a state chief executive of her own party in a primary.

More recently, she has come under the scrutiny of an investigation by the Republican-controlled legislature into the possibility that she ordered the dismissal of Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.

Palin has a long history of run-ins with the Alaska GOP hierarchy, giving her genuine maverick status and reformer credentials that could complement McCain's image.

Her husband, Todd Palin, is part Yup'ik Eskimo, and is a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who competes in the Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race. The couple lives in Wasilla. They have five children, the youngest of whom was born in April with Down syndrome.

WVSR-AM Sports News at Phila. Front Page News, Venus Williams, favorites keep winning at US Open

WVSR-AM Sports News at Phila. Front Page News, Venus Williams, favorites keep winning at US Open

Venus Williams, of the United States, serves to Rossana de Los Rios, of Paraguay, during their match at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. (

NEW YORK (AP) -- Venus Williams and James Blake kept favorites on the fast track at the U.S. Open, with top-seeded Rafael Nadal and Ana Ivanovic hoping to join them later Thursday in reaching the third round.

David Ferrer, Andy Murray and Dinara Safina also moved on, and that's mostly been the pattern so far at Flushing Meadows - big names facing little trouble.

Through the early action on Day 4, only two top players had been upset in the tournament: No. 8 Vera Zvonareva and No. 10 Anna Chakvetadze.

The seventh-seeded Williams overwhelmed Rossana de Los Rios 6-0, 6-3, winning on her fifth match point and needing only 59 minutes to advance.

"I'm very satisfied so far, the way it's gone," Williams said.

Williams breezed past an opponent ranked 117th. After teaming with her sister to win Olympic gold in doubles, she stayed on course to play Serena in the quarterfinals here.

"Whichever way the draw goes, whichever way the matches go, as long as hopefully it's a win for me, I'm pretty happy about it," she said.

Williams is the last woman to win consecutive championships at the U.S. Open, but hasn't taken the title since 2001.

"Oh yes, I remember. I won't forget, but I'd like to have a more recent memory as of, like, '08," she said. "Kind of overdue."

Blake moved on when Steve Darcis pulled out because of a bad lower back. Seeded ninth and coming off a tough, five-set match in the first round, Blake lost the first set 4-6, then won 6-3 and was ahead 1-0 when Darcis retired.

Ivanovic played in the late afternoon. Nadal and Serena Williams were set for the night session.

Among the other early winners were No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 17 Alize Cornet, No. 18 Dominika Cibulkova and No. 19 Nadia Petrova. But No. 20 Nicole Vaidisova lost to Severine Bremond 7-5, 6-3.

The fourth-seeded Ferrer beat Andreas Beck 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (5), the sixth-seeded Murray defeated Michael Llodra 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7) and No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka advanced.

The No. 6-seeded Safina, not nearly as volatile as brother Marat Safin, played under control in beating Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3. The Russian seemed perturbed just once, when she challenged a line call - she was right - and earned a replay of a point late in the second set.

The 22-year-old Safina has won 17 of her last 18 matches, losing only to Elena Dementieva for the Olympic gold medal.

Radwanska beat Mariana Duque Marino 6-0, 7-6 (3) and fittingly won the final point at net. Last year, the Polish teen made a splash at the U.S. Open when she startled Maria Sharapova, often walking halfway to the service box and hopping before backing up to receive.

That breakthrough win over Sharapova came in the third round. This time, Radwanska will play Cibulkova in the third round.

Cornet rallied in the first-set tiebreaker to fashion a 7-6 (5), 6-1 over Bethanie Mattek. The 18-year-old French teen took advantage of Mattek's four straight misses to close out the opening set.

Mattek is known for her outlandish outfits - she started out last year's Open in a revealing, metallic gold Wonder Woman get-up and later wore a leopard-print ensemble. Her attire for this match was downright conservative by her standards, featuring a white top that was wide open in the back and a black skirt.

Now ranked No. 44 after a successful season, Mattek lost in her first matchup with Cornet. Mattek came to the Open without a coach and sometimes uses YouTube to scout players she's never faced.

Cornet stayed aggressive, highlighted by a sequence in the first set when she hit so many overhead slams in succession, the linesman keep retreating to give Mattek more room to maneuver.

Obama plays some hoops, works on speech

Obama plays some hoops, works on speech

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shakes hands as makes a surprise visit to the Illinois delegation women's luncheon in Denver Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008.

DENVER (AP) -- Barack Obama aims to weave the personal with the political Thursday night as he tells 75,000 supporters in a football stadium - and millions more at home - how as president he would make a difference in their lives.

The Republicans weren't just sitting back to watch on TV. GOP rival John McCain stayed mum about his running mate deliberations, but one top prospect - Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty - abruptly canceled numerous public appearances, as speculation increased in intensity.

McCain was expected to announce his decision by week's end, possibly Friday, hoping to take the edge off Obama's big convention finale.

Obama put finishing touches on his speech Thursday morning, but also found time to shoot some hoops on a basketball court at the Denver Athletic Club.

He also spoke to a luncheon for female Illinois delegates. "I had this speech tonight. I wanted to practice it out on you guys. See if it worked on a friendly audience," Obama joked. He didn't actually give the speech.

"I haven't forgotten where I came from," he added. "It's because of all of you that Michelle and I have this great honor of helping to lead the party and win back this White House."

Aides said his address accepting the Democratic presidential nomination would be a "direct conversation" with Americans on what's at stake and the risks of putting another Republican in the White House.

Obama, who first gained national prominence just four years ago in a speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention as a little-known Illinois state senator, was also expected to draw contrasts with rival John McCain and try to dispel any remaining concerns Americans might have about his capability to govern.

Obama accepts the Democratic nomination Thursday night at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High.

Three hours before the day's program began, as many as 1,000 people were lined up at a pedestrian entrance to the stadium. On a hot, sunny day, security people were advising the crowd to drink a lot of water. Nearby street parking was going for as much as $80 a space.

"Senator Obama's speech tonight will be as he himself has characterized it, more workmanlike, a very direct conversation with the American people about the choice we face in this election. About the risk of staying on the same path we're on, the risk of just more of the same versus the change we need," Obama spokeswoman Anita Dunn said in a conference call with reporters.

McCain appeared poised to name his running mate soon after the end of the Democratic convention, in hopes of curbing any bump in the polls that Obama might get as he and running mate Joe Biden and their wives begin a three-day bus tour of battleground states on Friday, beginning in Pennsylvania.

McCain, too, planned a rally in Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

He said in a radio interview that he was bringing to that event both former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, two of the leading names on his short list for vice president. But he cautioned against assuming that meant either one would be the pick.

"I haven't decided yet, so I can't tell you," he told KDKA NewsRadio in Pittsburgh in an interview that was taped on Wednesday.

Pawlenty, who was in Denver as part of a GOP team criticizing Democrats, deflected all questions about the possibility of being McCain's vice presidential pick. "I am scheduled to be in Minnesota tomorrow to be at the State Fair," was all he would say about his immediate plans.

Without explanation, Pawlenty called off an Associated Press interview at the last minute, as well as other media interviews in Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention.

Others believed to be in contention for the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket included former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was meeting with donors in California, and Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who was vacationing on Long Island.

Both campaigns see Pennsylvania as an important battleground.

"This is not hyperbole: We cannot win without Pennsylvania," Biden, who spent part of his youth in Scranton, Pa., told Pennsylvania delegates at a breakfast Thursday.

Obama hopes Biden's blue-collar appeal will let him avoid a repeat of his Pennsylvania primary loss in the Democratic primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama stood ready to accept the Democrats' nomination, the first black person to claim such a prize, on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

The Democrats officially made Obama their presidential choice and Biden their vice presidential nominee on Wednesday.

The McCain campaign said it planned to air a new ad that will run in battleground states Thursday night around the time of Obama's address. In it, McCain will look into the camera and speak as if he were talking directly to Obama, said McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

Obama played basketball Thursday morning at the Denver Athletic Club. He waved to supporters as he came out, wearing a Secret Service cap, a brown shirt and athletic pants.

He was also doing some final work on his speech, said campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer.

"Doing the speech at Mile High is an important point for our campaign. It's symbolic of how Sen. Obama won the nomination. It will show how Obama wants to involve people who are not usually involved in the political process," Pfeiffer told reporters.

Republicans, keeping up a theme they first used when Obama drew tens of thousands for an appearance in Berlin, derided the acceptance speech's stage as befitting a celebrity with little actual accomplishment.

"This Roman-like facade, a facade with Roman columns, is a perfect metaphor or icon for the point that it's an interesting production, but behind it there's not much there," Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty told ABC.

Democrats have responded by noting that President Bush's acceptance speech in 2004 also took place on an elaborate stage that included similar columns.

The drama of Obama's long, emotional primary struggle against Clinton behind him at last, the Illinois senator's convention speech will propel him into a tough sprint to Election Day.

A modern-day technological effort was under way to get most of those packed into the stadium to form the world's largest phone bank - text-messaging thousands more to boost voter registration for the fall.

Obama accepts his party's nod on a day few might have imagined decades ago, when King fought for civil rights.

"This is a monumental moment in our nation's history," Martin Luther King III, the civil rights leader's eldest son, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "And it becomes obviously an even greater moment in November if he's elected."

Obama was just 2 years old when King addressed a sea of people on the National Mall in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.

Adding a touch of celebrity to the convention's final night, singers Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder and will.i.am were scheduled to perform, with Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem.

Gustav kills 23; New Orleans makes evacuation plan

Gustav kills 23; New Orleans makes evacuation plan

A family stays together during heavy rains caused by Hurricane Gustav in Leogan, southern Haiti, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. The death toll from Hurricane Gustav is up to 22 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti's civil protection director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste says mudslides and flooding have killed at least 14 people in Haiti, including a young girl who was swept off a bridge by floodwaters.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Gustav stalled offshore Wednesday and poured more misery onto Haiti after landslides and flooding killed 23 people. Oil workers began leaving their rigs and New Orleans drew up evacuation plans as forecasters warned the storm could plow into the U.S. Gulf coast as a major hurricane.

Gustav killed 15 people on Haiti's deforested southern peninsula, where it dumped 12 inches or more of rain. A landslide buried eight people, including a mother and six of her children, in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Gustav weakened to a tropical storm over Haiti, but was expected to become a hurricane again as early as Thursday over the warm Caribbean waters between Cuba and Jamaica. Its expected track pointed directly at the Cayman Islands, an offshore banking center where residents boarded up homes and stocked up on emergency supplies.

By Labor Day, Gustav could make landfall anywhere from south Texas to the Florida panhandle, and hurricane experts said everyone in between should be concerned.

"We know it's going to head into the Gulf. After that, we're not sure," said meteorologist Rebecca Waddington at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "For that reason, everyone in the Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm."

New Orleans began planning a possible mandatory evacuation, hoping to prevent the chaos it saw after Hurricane Katrina struck three years ago Friday. Mayor Ray Nagin left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to help the city prepare.

Oil prices spiked more than $2 to close above $118 a barrel, rising for a third day on fears that Gustav - like Katrina and Rita - could damage the Gulf Coast energy infrastructure, home to 15 percent of the nation's natural gas output, a quarter of its oil production and nearly half its refining capacity.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it was evacuating 300 people from rigs Wednesday, and other producers were doing the same. Transocean Inc., the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, said all 11 of its Gulf rigs were pulling up and securing drill pipe and other underwater equipment as a precaution.

Any damage to the oil infrastructure could send U.S. pump prices spiking, possibly before the busy Labor Day weekend.

"A bad storm churning in the Gulf could be a nightmare scenario," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "We might see oil prices spike $5 to $8 if it really rips into platforms."

Gustav is particularly worrisome because there are few surrounding wind currents capable of shearing off the top of the storm and diminishing its power, the hurricane center said. "Combined with the deep warm waters, rapid intensification could occur in a couple of days."

By Wednesday evening, a slightly weakened Gustav had top winds of 45 mph. It was centered some 65 miles south of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and traveling west at 7 mph.

A hurricane warning was in effect for parts of Cuba, including the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, where base spokesman Bruce Lloyd predicted "a really wet night."

Nearly 30,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in eastern Cuba, and state television showed muddy, waist-high water damaging homes. Fidel Castro pledged in an essay that "no one will be forgotten."

The Cayman Islands ordered citizens to secure loose materials in their yards to prevent them from becoming missiles in high winds, and told them to stock up on food, medicine and fuel for generators.

In the Haitian capital, chocolate waters spilled over riverbanks and into shacks of the Cite Soleil slum. Residents pushed bicycles and balanced boxes of belongings on their heads as they sought higher ground.

U.N. peacekeepers said they evacuated thousands of Haitians by boat and truck, and were preparing to pull people out of the western town of Jeremie even as rain continued to fall. Civil protection director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste said a young girl swept off a bridge by flood waters was among 15 people killed in Haiti.

In the Dominican Republic, a mother's screams and the roar of falling earth jolted a Santo Domingo shantytown from its sleep Tuesday. Marcelina Feliz and six of her seven children - ranging in age from 11 months to 15 years - were killed when a landslide crushed their tin-roofed house.

Feliz, 32, was found hugging the body of her smallest child, rescue officials said. A neighbor was also killed.

"I don't know how I can live now, because none of my family is left," said Marino Borges, Feliz's husband and father of several of her children.

Democrats choose Obama in thunderous acclamation

Democrats choose Obama in thunderous acclamation

Delegates celebrate the nomination of Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008.

DENVER (AP) -- Barack Obama swept to the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday night, a transforming triumph that made him the first black American to lead a major party into the fall campaign for the White House. Thousands of national convention delegates stood and cheered as they made history.

Former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton asked Democrats in the convention hall to make their verdict unanimous "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory." And they did, with a roar.

Competing chants of "Obama" and "Yes we can" surged up from the convention floor as the outcome of a carefully scripted roll call of the states was announced.

Obama, a 47-year-old Illinois senator, was across town as the party handed him its top prize - a ticket into the general election campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain. He was expected to briefly visit the Pepsi Center later in the evening to thank the delegates.

His formal acceptance speech Thursday night was expected to draw a crowd of 75,000 at the nearby football stadium where an elaborate backdrop was under construction.

The convention program also included the delegates' acceptance of Obama's choice of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as vice presidential running mate. Biden had the marquee time spot for his acceptance speech late Wednesday.

Former President Clinton also had a turn at the podium, this time in a supporting role for the man who defeated his wife in a bruising battle for the nomination.

Melissa Etheridge provided a rousing mid-session musical interlude, a medley that included "Give Peace a Chance."

Clinton's call for Obama to be approved by acclamation - midway through the traditional roll call of the states - was the culmination of a painstaking agreement worked out between the two camps to present a unified front after their long and often-bitter fight for the nomination.

Inside the convention hall, the outcome of the roll call of the states was never in doubt, only its mechanics.

"No matter where we stood at the beginning of this campaign, Democrats stand together today," declared Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a former Clinton supporter who delivered a nominating speech for Obama.

"We believe passionately in Barack Obama's message of changing the direction of our country," she said.

Earlier in the day, Clinton formally released her delegates amid shouts of "no," by disappointed supporters. "She doesn't have the right to release us," said Massachusetts delegate Nancy Saboori. "We're not little kids to be told what to do in a half-hour."

And Clinton did get hundreds of votes in the roll call - 341 to Obama's 1,549 - before she called for him to be approved by acclamation.

Polls show the campaign now is a close one between Obama and McCain.

The same surveys show a strong desire for change after eight years of the Bush administration, and Obama has pledged an end to the war in Iraq and a fresh economic policy.

But even as he awaited his nomination, there was open talk in the convention city that his race remained a stumbling block to winning the White House.

"A lot of white workers ... and quite frankly a lot of union members believe he's the wrong race," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told a breakfast meeting of Michigan delegates.

Obama's nomination sealed a political ascent as astonishing as any other in recent memory - made all the more so by his race, in a nation founded by slave owners.

The son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya whom he barely knew, he attended college and Harvard Law School. In between was a turn as a $12,000-a-year community worker on the streets of Chicago.

He won his seat in the Illinois Legislature in 1996. But his first bid for higher office, a brash challenge to Rep. Bobby Rush in an inner-city Chicago congressional district, ended in failure in 2000.

Four years later, as a candidate for the Senate, he dazzled with a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, then won his election. He announced his presidential candidacy a scant two years after arriving in Washington.

With his gifts as a speaker, his astounding ability to raise funds on the Internet and an unmatched ground operation pieced together by political veterans, he won the first test, the Iowa caucuses, on Jan. 3

Clinton rebounded to win the New Hampshire primary five days later, and the two were soon matched in a grueling battle for the nomination that was not settled until the primaries ended in June.

"The journey will be difficult. The road will be long," he said then as he pivoted to confront McCain.

Obama: History in the making, first black nominee

Obama: History in the making, first black nominee

DENVER - When this campaign ends, after future presidents have come and gone, and when today's young people are grown old, history will remember Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008, as the day a black man became the presidential nominee of a major party.

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This is history with the ink still wet; transcendent, yet in your face now.

It's a history that belongs to the red states and the blue states and the United States, to borrow the phrase that made people first sit up and listen to Barack Obama only four years ago.

Americans who don't like him, who will never vote for him, own it, too.

The roll call of states Wednesday night at the Democratic convention means Denver joins Springfield, Ill., and Washington, D.C. in an arc that spans centuries which saw slavery, emancipation, lynchings, Jim Crow, lunch counter bigotry, voting rights, integration, oratory, intermarriage, black pride, assassination, riots, marches — so many marches — and now a nomination.

The arc traces Abraham Lincoln's legacy of freeing the slaves to Martin Luther King Jr.'s speechLincoln Memorial 45 years ago Thursday, to the convention center in Denver. at the

And on next to Invesco Field, where Obama will speak on the anniversary of King's "I have a dream" speech.

"This is a monumental moment in our nation's history," Martin Luther King III, the civil rights icon's oldest son, told AP on Wednesday. "And it becomes obviously an even greater moment in November if he's elected."

Democrats have danced around race for much of their convention, to a point where the marker that will enter the history books is almost obscured. It's all about making whites comfortable voting for him. Democrats worry about a backlash.

Obama's racial milestone was on everyone's minds but few lips as speaker after speaker stood to emphasize that he is a regular guy.

Yet all knew, win or lose in the fall, something for the ages was unfolding. "This man is on a mission," said Florida delegate Cynthia Moore Chestnut of Gainesville.

That's a lot riding on someone who has fought no wars, led no mass protests, served two-thirds of a term in the Senate, and missed the height of the civil rights movement because he was too young.

Until now, Obama's promise has outpaced his achievements and, at times, he has sounded like a man carried along on a wave that came out of the blue.

"When I actually do something," he joked not so long ago, "we'll let you know."

Two movements — for blacks and women — converged in this campaign as Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton went head to head. Both movements got farther than ever before, but only one could carry the day.

The roll call ended her historic campaign to become the first female nominee of a major party and hard feelings linger.

Civil rights and women's rights are not in a horse race. But over two centuries it has felt like one, as if there were only so much equality to go around at any given moment.

Women and blacks have worked together at times, apart at other times and against each other on occasion, as their advancements leapfrogged.

Blacks got the right to vote, then women did. But then blacks wrestled for decades to secure the right to vote without impediments that amounted to disenfranchisement.

Paradoxically (does history ever unfold in a neat progression?), Obama is less a product of the civil rights movement than most of his black country men and women. He is not a descendent of slaves. He is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas.

Obama inevitably stands on many shoulders as beneficiary of the evolution of black political power in the United States.

There are the shoulders of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, whose many accomplishments include this milestone: At the Republican convention in 1888, he received one vote in the presidential roll call, the first black man to get a vote for a major party nomination.

There are the shoulders of Jesse Jackson, a century later the first black contender to sway the race for president.

And the shoulders of ordinary voters across racial lines, like Kate Clark, 53, a white cafe owner in Nazareth, Pa., who said: "I think we need to see the United States and see the world through eyes that are younger, through eyes that have dreams, through eyes that see something new for the nation."

And Edwin David, who served with the famed World War II unit of black fighters known as the Tuskegee Airmen and, at age 83, and retired in the Pocono Mountains, pleaded: "Just let me live 'til voting time in November. In my lifetime, we just might get to see the first African-American president."

WVSR-AM Sports News at Phila. Front Page News, Baseball to start using instant replay Thursday

WVSR-AM Sports News at Phila. Front Page News, Baseball to start using instant replay Thursday

The Major League Baseball instant replay display at Tropicana Field is shown before a Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays MLB baseball game on Tuesday Aug. 26, 2008 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The setup will be used during Friday night's Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays game.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Replay ball! Umpires will be allowed to check video on home run calls starting Thursday after Major League Baseball, guardian of America's most traditional sport, reversed its decades-long opposition to instant replay.

"Like everything else in life, there are times that you have to make an adjustment," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said following Tuesday's announcement. "My opposition to unlimited instant replay is still very much in play. I really think that the game has prospered for well over a century now doing things the way we did it."

The 74-year-old Selig, who described himself as "old fashioned" and an admirer of baseball's "human element," softened his opposition following a rash of blown calls this year.

For now, video will be used only on so-called "boundary calls," such as determining whether fly balls went over the fence, whether potential home runs were fair or foul and whether there was fan interference on potential home runs.

"Any time you try to change something in baseball, it's both emotional and difficult," Selig said. "There's been some concern that, well, if you start here, look what it's going to lead to. Not as long as I'm the commissioner."

Replay will go into use with three series scheduled to open Thursday: Philadelphia at the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota at Oakland and Texas at the Los Angeles Angels. For other games, replays will be available to umpires starting Friday.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella wondered whether a team could challenge a call.

"I'd love to be able to throw a red hankie or a green hankie. Imagine being able to throw something on the field and not be ejected," he said. "I shouldn't say it's not going to work, but this could turn into a little bit of a fiasco initially."

The NFL first used replay to aid officials in 1986, the NHL in 1991 and the NBA in 2002. Even at stuffy old Wimbledon, technology has been used on line calls since 2006. Replay equipment to help determine calls was in place at this year's Little League World Series.

Fan interference has been a big issue in baseball, with almost constant debate since Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall and gave Derek Jeter a home run during the 1996 AL championship series. Many blown calls have occurred at newer ballparks, where fans are closer to the field have the ability to reach over fences.

"In this day and age, where all these ballparks are being built now where people can reach out over the outfield fence and catch balls, fan interference is becoming more and more of an issue," Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine said.

Detroit pitcher Kenny Rogers called the decision "a slap in the face of umpires that have been here for a long time" and said the decision might have been made because Alex Rodriguez lost a home run on a blown call May 21.

"It overshot the mark by far just because, what, in a Yankee game someone didn't get a homer? Please. It's happened thousands of times," Rogers said. "That's part of the game. It's the beauty of the game. Mistakes are made."

Baseball general managers voted 25-5 last November to recommend use the technology, and baseball's lawyers spent recent weeks finalizing agreements with the unions for umpires and for players.

"I find it very strange that, with 30 games to go in the season, that they would start it now. I find that very peculiar," Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "If they wanted it so bad, what took them so long to get it going and why wait until this particular point in time?"

Baseball officials wanted to avoid having a situation in the postseason where fans with access to televisions and viewers at home knew what the correct call was but the umpires on the field did not.

"Some people thought that we ought to wait until the postseason," Selig said. "I'd rather go into the postseason knowing that we've already used it."

Video from available broadcast feeds - not every team televises every game - will be collected at the office of Major League Baseball Advanced Media in New York, where it will be monitored by a technician and either an umpire supervisor or a retired umpire. If the crew chief at a game decides replay needs to be checked, umpires will leave the field, technicians at MLBAM will show umpires the video and the crew chief will make the call, overturning the original decision only if there is "clear and convincing evidence."

Leaving the dugout to argue a call following a replay will result in an automatic ejection. Replays of the boundary calls will not be shown on stadium video boards, MLB executive vice president for baseball operations Jimmie Lee Solomon said.

MLB said replay delays will be offset by fewer arguments.

"So if the game is held up for a couple of minutes a couple of times a year, I think that's OK," New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina said. "It's certainly not going to be seen as often as it is in the NFL."

Selig would consider refinements during the offseason but boldly said he never will allow replays to be used for other calls, such as determining whether a ball was caught or trapped. The use for safe/out calls hasn't been considered.

"I believe that because of the configuration of ballparks, both new and old, that calling home runs is really much more difficult than it once was," Selig said. "I don't believe in the use of instant replay for other things."

Players generally agreed.

"I just don't want it to open up Pandora's box, with calls at home and calls at the bases and eventually behind the plate," Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria said.

The players' association agreed to replay for the balance of the season but retained the right, through Dec. 10, to ask for additional bargaining for future years. If players don't, the replay agreement will run through 2011.

Union head Donald Fehr doesn't anticipate an expansion of what calls replays can be used to determine.

"We haven't talked about that. I think that that's unlikely over the term of this agreement," he said. "What we'll obviously do is look at it after the World Series. We're hopeful that we're going to say it was great."

Umpire Gary Cederstrom said his crew had a training session Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.

"We talked to the technicians and he explained what they're going to be doing," he said. "We just basically did a dry run."