Obama: McCain focused on biography over economy

Obama: McCain focused on biography over economy

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., takes the microphone after being introduced by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., right, Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, at Schott Glass in Duryea, Pa.

DURYEA, Pa. (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama called Republican rival John McCain's acceptance speech the final piece of an out-of-touch convention that focused on its nominee's biography instead of the struggles of the middle class.

"If you watched the Republican National Convention over the last three days, you wouldn't know that we have the highest unemployment in five years because they didn't say a thing about what is going on with the middle class," Obama told workers at a specialty glass factory.

"They spent a lot of time talking about John McCain's biography, which we all honor," the Illinois senator said. "They talked about me a lot, in less than respectful terms. What they didn't talk about is you and what you're seeing in your lives and what you're going through, or what your friends or your neighbors are going through."

Obama pointed out that the nation's unemployment rate zoomed to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August, according to a government jobs report issued Friday.

"We've now lost 605,000 jobs since the beginning of this year," Obama said. "We've had eight consecutive months of job losses."

Obama seized on the new jobs report as part of his strategy to tie McCain to President Bush's stewardship of the economy and to connect with voters who fear their jobs will disappear. There is no shortage of such voters in Rust Belt Pennsylvania.

In accepting the Republican presidential nomination, McCain spoke at length about his biography, his love of country and his principles for governing.

Obama mocked McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis for saying the election would be decided more by voters' views about the candidates than about issues.

"Personalities? I mean, I've got a pretty good personality. But that's not why I'm running for president," Obama said to laughter.

In two days of campaigning in Pennsylvania, Obama has been reaching out to middle-class and working class voters who preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton to him during the Pennsylvania primary.

"I have to say to you: I'm not perfect, but the one thing people can't deny is that for my entire public life, I've been fighting for folks like you, ordinary, middle-class families and working families, helping them getting ahead," Obama said, borrowing a theme that helped Clinton win in these rural, largely white areas.

Obama later greeted workers and patrons at The Avenue Diner in Wyoming, Pa. Asked by reporters his reaction to McCain's acceptance speech, Obama replied, "Still haven't heard, after three days, what they're going to do for the economy."

McCain, Palin present themselves as reformers

McCain, Palin present themselves as reformers

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, attend a rally, Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, in Cedarburg, Wis.

CEDARBURG, Wis. (AP) -- John McCain said Friday the sagging economy has brought "tough times all over America" as he made a splashy debut with Sarah Palin in critical Midwestern states as the newly crowned Republican presidential ticket.

A crowd of thousands cheered the Arizona senator and Alaska governor as they presented themselves as a team of reformers eager to challenge Washington's political establishment.

"John McCain doesn't run with the Washington herd," said Palin, the 44-year-old Alaska governor and surprise pick as McCain's running mate.

"It's over. It's over. It's over for the special interests," McCain promised. "We're going to start working for the people of this country."

Twelve hours after leaving the Republican convention in Minnesota, McCain and Palin were cheered and applauded by a throng of thousands that wound down several streets of Cedarburg, a traditional Republican enclave within Democratic-leaning Wisconsin.

McCain's campaign put out an ambitious estimate of 12,400 people at the rally. Cedarburg's population is about 11,000.

"Isn't this the most marvelous running mate in the history of this nation?" McCain said of Palin, who introduced him as "the only great man in this race, the only man in this election ready to serve as our 44th president."

Two months before the election, small towns are a key target for McCain as he tries to lure independent and blue-collar voters essential for him to win.

Many people in the audience held digital cameras and video cameras above their heads to get a shot as McCain's "Straight Talk Express" bus rolled into town. Palin said it was their intention to bring their campaign directly from the convention to "small-town America" like the small town in Alaska where she once was mayor.

The Republican team plans to campaign together in hotly contested states - Wisconsin and Michigan on Friday, Colorado and New Mexico on Saturday - and then go their separate ways. Palin is expected to return to Alaska just briefly and then go back to the campaign trail, perhaps on Monday.

"Change is coming, change is coming," McCain promised the audience, borrowing the same theme that Democrat Barack Obama has made the centerpiece of his run for the White House.

McCain's campaign as a political outsider and rebel is complicated by the fact that he has served in the Senate for 22 years and solidly endorsed key elements of President Bush's record, most notably the war in Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts. McCain originally opposed the tax cuts but changed his mind as he sought the GOP presidential nomination.

McCain took note of gloomy economic news from Washington: The government reported that the nation's unemployment rate soared to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August as employers slashed 84,000 jobs.

"My friends, a little straight talk, a little straight talk," McCain said. "These are tough times. Today the jobs report is another reminder these are tough times. They're tough times in Wisconsin, they're tough times in Ohio, tough times all over America." He did not say how he would fix the economy.

After their speeches, Palin and McCain ducked into The Chocolate Factory to greet customers and sign autographs. After Palin met a few people, she turned to the ice cream counter and said: "I've got to get the moose tracks, please. Moose tracks, you know, near and dear to my heart. I can't go wrong with it." She was handed a waffle cone with a giant scoop.

Then McCain and his wife came up to order. The senator asked for a recommendation and then decided on watermelon sorbet. Cindy McCain ordered a brownie.

The woman behind the cash register, Becky Luft, 20, was flush with excitement and her friend described her as McCain's No. 1 fan. McCain came around the counter to pose for a picture with her.

People in the restaurant congratulated Palin on her nomination, many saying they liked her speech.

"I am very impressed with you," said Doreen Wirth, a Republican and artist from Cedarburg.

McCain and Palin headed to Michigan for an evening rally. After touching down, they stopped in Detroit to collect the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, which has 328,000 members nationwide.

Chuck Canterbury, the union's national president, said McCain is a leader "who understands the words 'in the line of duty' and who knows all too well what it means to put your life on the line."

In brief remarks, McCain noted that Palin's husband is a member of the United Steel Workers union, and told the officers that they "are at the front lines of our cites and towns - you know the challenges we face."

Forgotten woman: But despite all her problems Carol McCain says she still adores her ex-husband

McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year- old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain's three eldest children.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam's infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news. But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a teleg raph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969.

Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life- saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Today, she stands at just 5' 4" in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 1 8 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.

My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know what happens...it just does.'

In 1979 - while still married to Carol - he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Some of McCain's acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to 'play the field'. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.

Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans' rights, said: 'I have been following John McCain's career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is -deceit.'

When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better."

McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory,' he said. After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona . And the rest is history.'

Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, and a former presidential candidate, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel - even by the standards of modern politics.

Obama says GOP avoiding issues on voters' minds

Obama says GOP avoiding issues on voters' minds

YORK, Pa. (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republicans at their national convention are attacking him to avoid talking about the sagging economy and housing problems.
"You're hearing an awfully lot about me - most of which is not true - but you're not hearing a lot about you," Obama said. "You haven't heard a word about how we're going to deal with any aspect of the economy that is affecting you and your pocketbook day-to-day. Haven't heard a word about it. I'm not exaggerating. Literally, two nights, they have not said a word about it."
The Illinois senator told voters that the GOP convention speakers are spending all their time talking about politics, not about issues that matter to voters. He criticized the Republicans for not addressing the economic distress or housing foreclosures that have grown during the Bush administration.
Speaking with reporters later, Obama dismissed the idea that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP's vice presidential candidate, had been criticized unfairly because of her gender.
"The notion that many questions about her work in Alaska is somehow not relevant to her potentially being vice president of the United States doesn't make too much sense to me," Obama said.
"I assume she wants to be treated the same way guys are treated, which means their records are under scrutiny. I've been through this for 19 months. She's been through this for, what, four days so far?"
Asked by workers at a factory here about Palin's attacks on him Wednesday night, Obama replied, "I'll let Gov. Palin talk about her experience. I'll talk about mine."
Later, when reporters pressed him about Palin, Obama noted that his opponent is Republican John McCain, not the GOP vice presidential pick.
"By the way, I've been called worse on the basketball court. It's not that big a deal," Obama said.
Reporters shouted after Obama as he left the microphones for details about what he had been called. His reply: "You'd have to bleep it out."
Earlier in the day Obama's top strategist, David Axelrod, dismissed the Alaska governor's convention speech as dishonest about Obama's record.
Axelrod told reporters aboard Obama's campaign plane that the Republican National Convention speakers had distorted the Democratic candidate's record and ignored his resume. He also suggested that John McCain's running mate was only parroting what she'd been told.
"There wasn't one thing that she said about Obama or what he's proposing that is true," Axelrod said.
"She tried to attack Sen. Obama by saying he had no significant legislative achievements. Maybe that's what she was told."
That statement drew strong reaction from McCain's headquarters.
"For the Obama campaign to suggest that she is simply being told what to do is offensive and takes our country backward," communications director Jill Hazelbaker said.
On Wednesday, Republicans sought to define Obama as untested and inexperienced, making light of his past work as a community organizer in Chicago.
Obama said the attack was weak.
"They're talking about the three years of work I did right out of college, as if I'm making the leap from two or three years out of college into the presidency," he told reporters.
Ultimately, Axelrod said, the Republicans squandered an opportunity to promote their candidate. He also questioned the emphasis on McCain's years as a prisoner of war, saying the Arizona senator's history already was well known.
"They're shedding an awfully lot of heat but no light," he said. "It almost defies the laws of physics."
As for Palin's claim to be a political outsider, Axelrod said that given her pointed criticism of Obama, "for someone who makes the point that she's not from Washington, she looked very much like she would fit in very well there."

McCain accepts GOP nomination: 'change is coming'

McCain accepts GOP nomination: 'change is coming'

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- John McCain, a POW turned political rebel, vowed Thursday night to vanquish the "constant partisan rancor" that grips Washington as he launched his fall campaign for the White House. "Change is coming," he promised the Republican National Convention and a prime time television audience.
To repeated cheers from his delegates, McCain criticized fellow Republicans as well as Democratic rival Barack Obama as he reached out to independents and disaffected Democrats.
"We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us," he said of the Republicans who controlled Congress for most of the past 15 years.
As for Obama, he said, "I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it."
McCain accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination, culminating a long primary season fight and setting the stage for battle with Democrat Barack Obama.
McCain appeared on the stage and told the cheering throng what an honor it was to say yes to the party's call and noted that it had been a rough campaign so far.
He said that President Bush has kept the country safe since the 2001 terror attacks. McCain also promised the crowd: "I will not let you down."
McCain asked undecided voters "for the opportunity to earn your trust. I intend to earn it."
McCain has accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination, culminating a long primary season fight and setting the stage for battle with Democrat Barack Obama.
McCain appeared on the stage and told the cheering throng what an honor it was to say yes to the party's call and noted that it had been a rough campaign so far.
He said that President Bush has kept the country safe since the 2001 terror attacks. McCain also promised the crowd: "I will not let you down."
McCain asked undecided voters "for the opportunity to earn your trust. I intend to earn it."
McCain, a POW turned political rebel, vowed to vanquish the "constant partisan rancor" plaguing the nation. "Change is coming" to Washington, he promised the Republican National Convention.
"I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again," McCain said in a prime-time address. "I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not," he said of his rival for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama.
McCain drew a roar from his delegates when he walked out onto the convention stage to speak, silhouetted by a single spotlight. He was introduced by a video that dwelt heavily on his service, a man hailed for "a faithful unyielding love for America, country first."
"USA, USA, USA," chanted the crowd in the hall.
McCain's speech was the highlight of the final night of the party convention, but before he took the podium, delegates unanimously awarded the vice presidential nomination to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She is the first female ticketmate in Republican history.
McCain, 72 and campaigning to become the oldest first-term president in history, faced a delicate assignment as he formally accepted his party's presidential nomination: presenting his credentials as a reformer willing to take on his own party and stressing his independence from an unpopular President Bush - all without breaking faith with his Republican base.
Other Republicans were far more pointed in criticizing Obama from the convention podium.
In the race for the White House, "It's not about building a record, it's about having one," said former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. "It's not about talking pretty, it's about talking straight."
McCain invoked the five years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison. "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said. "I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's."
Thousands of red, white and blue balloons nestled in netting above the convention floor, to be released on cue for the traditional celebratory convention finale.
He and Palin were departing their convention city immediately after the Arizona senator's acceptance speech, bound for Wisconsin and an early start on the final weeks of the White House campaign.
Palin has been the object of intense scrutiny since McCain tapped her as his running mate last week. "I'm very proud to have introduced our next vice president to the country," he said. "But I can't wait until I introduce her to Washington."
The last night of the McCain-Palin convention also marked the end of an intensive stretch of politics with the potential to reshape the race. Democrats held their own convention last week in Denver, nominating Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as running mate for Obama, whose own acceptance speech drew an estimated 84,000 partisans to an outdoor football stadium.
The polls indicate a close race between McCain and Obama, at 47 a generation younger than his Republican opponent, with the outcome likely to be decided in scattered swing states in the industrial Midwest and the Southwest.
Ahead lie the traditional major checkpoints - presidential and vice presidential debates, millions of dollars in ads - but also the unscripted, spontaneous moments that can take on outsized importance in the race to pick a president.
The Arizona senator paid a brief visit to the Xcel center at mid-afternoon to check out a speaking podium remade overnight to capture the intimacy of a town-hall meeting that has become his trademark.
He was accompanied by his wife, Cindy, as well as two close allies, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat-turned-independent.
Cindy McCain recommended her husband to the nation. "If Americans want straight talk and the plain truth they should take a good close look at John McCain ... a man tested and true ... who's never wavered in his devotion to our country," she said in prepared remarks. She called him "a man who's served in Washington without ever becoming a Washington insider."
Graham also had a speaking slot, and he used it to criticize McCain's rival. He said Obama and the liberal group MoveOn.org were the only ones who didn't realize that Bush's decision to deploy additional troops to Iraq last year had succeeded.
Ridge's turn at the podium came after he had been mentioned prominently in speculation about a running mate.
That was an honor that went unexpectedly to Palin, the first female vice presidential candidate in party history, a 44-year-old Alaska governor virtually unknown nationally a week ago.
In the days since, she has faced a storm of scrutiny, some of it relating to her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and her time as governor, but most involving her 17-year-old unmarried daughter who is pregnant.
For the most part, McCain's aides have kept Palin out of public sight while vociferously defending her readiness to become president. She emerged Wednesday night during prime time to deliver a smiling, sarcastic attack on Obama that generated roars of approval - and acceptance - from the delegates.
She followed up in the hours before McCain's convention appearance with a meeting with Republican governors and a fundraising appeal that blamed Democrats for spreading "misinformation and flat-out lies" about her family and her.
Even so, there were fresh questions about her readiness to sit one chair away from the Oval Office.
McCain has cited her authority over the Alaska National Guard as one example. But in a memo last spring, Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell warned that "missions are at risk" in the state's units because of a personnel shortage. The lack of qualified airmen, Campbell said, "has reached a crisis level."
In an interview on Wednesday with The Associated Press, Campbell said the situation has improved since then, but not enough to eliminate his concern that shortages will result in the burnout of troops.
McCain won the presidential nomination late Wednesday night in an anticlimactic vote that followed a campaign lasting most of a decade. He first ran for the White House in 2000, but lost the Republican nomination to Bush in a bruising struggle. He began the current campaign the Republican front-runner, but his chances seemed to collapse last winter when opposition to the Iraq war rose among independents and conservatives grew upset over his backing for legislation to give illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship.
In one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent times, he recovered to win the New Hampshire primary in early January, then wrapped up the nomination on Feb. 5 with big-state primary victories on Super Tuesday.
Obama, campaigning in swing-state Pennsylvania on Thursday, said he wasn't surprised at Palin's criticism of him, and said Democrats intended to focus on her record.
"I think she's got a compelling story, but I assume she wants to be treated the same way that guys want to be treated," he said. "I've been through this 19 months, she's been through it - what - four days so far?"
Obama's campaign announced it had raised roughly $10 million from more than 130,000 donors since Palin delivered her speech Wednesday night.
Outside the hall, police on horseback thwarted plans by anti-war demonstrators to march on the convention hall.
protesters calling for an end to the Iraq war vowed to march as McCain spoke.
More than 100 demonstrators were arrested earlier in the day after a concert by the rock group Rage Against the Machine.
Police arrested more than 250 demonstrators on the convention's first day on Monday, but the streets have been relatively quiet since.

New Orleans reluctantly opens doors after Gustav

New Orleans reluctantly opens doors after Gustav

Coastal advocate Jimmy Delery, on a tour with LSU Hurricane Center experts, inspects damage along the Industrial Canal caused by Hurricane Gustav, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, in New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Thousands of people who fled Hurricane Gustav forced the city to reluctantly open its doors Wednesday, but nearly 1.2 million homes and businesses across Louisiana were still without electricity, and officials said it could take as long as a month to fully restore power.

As residents came home to New Orleans, President Bush returned to the site of one of the biggest failures of his presidency to show that the government had turned a corner since its bungled response to Katrina.

Faced with traffic backups on paths into the city, Mayor Ray Nagin gave up checking ID badges and automobile placards designed to keep residents out until early Thursday. Those who returned said if the city was safe enough for repair crews and health care workers, it was safe enough for them, too.

"People need to get home, need to get their houses straight and get back to work," said George Johnson, who used back roads to sneak into the city. "They want to keep you out of your own property. That's just not right."

But once back at home, many people had no power and no idea when it might return.

"There is no excuse for the delay. We absolutely need to quicken the pace at which power is restored," Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

Within hours of returning to his suburban home, Paul Braswell was sweating over an outdoor grill as he cooked the chicken and deer sausage he stored in his freezer alongside gallon-size blocks of ice before evacuating with his family to Mississippi.

"We don't have any power, and we don't know when it'll come back on, so we're going to eat all we can until it does," he said. "Tomorrow, we're boiling shrimp my mom left in her freezer."

Restoring power was critical to reopening schools, businesses and neighborhoods. Without electricity, gas stations could not pump fuel, and hospitals were running out of fuel for generators.

Some places never lost power, including the Superdome, where the Saints planned to open their regular football season Sunday.

In Jefferson Parish, which also reopened Wednesday, officials reported that most sewage-treatment stations were out of service because there was no power. The parish urged residents not to flush toilets, wash clothes or dishes, or even take showers out of concern that the system might backup and send sewage flowing in home and businesses.

After touring an emergency center and flooded-out farmland, President Bush praised the government response to Gustav as "excellent," but he urged utility companies in neighboring states to send extra manpower to Louisiana if they could spare it.

"One of the key things that needs to happen is that they've got to get electricity up here in Louisiana," Bush said.

The administration's swift reaction was a significant change from its response three years ago to Katrina, a far more devastating storm. Roughly 1,600 people were killed, and the White House was harshly criticized for stepping in too late.

To residents who lived through Katrina, that failure was still fresh.

"What do I care if Bush is visiting? I'm still trying to get my house back together from Katrina," housekeeper Flora Raymond said. "This time things went better, but we still need help from the last time."

In the days before Gustav arrived, nearly 2 million people were evacuated from the Louisiana coast. Only 16 deaths were attributed to the storm in the U.S.

Nearly 80,000 people remained in shelters in Louisiana and surrounding states. An estimated 18,000 people fled from New Orleans on buses and trains provided by the city. Officials did not expect to begin bringing them back until this weekend.

Inside the shelters, the days of living on a cot with strangers on all sides was taking a toll. At a church in Montgomey, Ala., an argument in a parking lot between two sisters over the gas money needed to return to New Orleans erupted into a fight that ended with slashed tires, a punch in the face and an arrest.

"I wanted to give her something," Samantha Williams said, holding her swelling lip. "But she wanted so much more."

Five people were arrested Wednesday in only the second case of attempted looting in New Orleans since the city emptied. Worried about potential looting of vacant properties, Nagin said the city would maintain its dusk-to-dawn curfew indefinitely.

There were fresh reminders that the 2008 hurricane season is far from over. Tropical Storm Hanna pounded flood-plagued Haiti before taking an expected turn north for the U.S. coast. Farther out to sea, Hurricane Ike spun westward across the Atlantic and could arrive in the Bahamas on Sunday as a hurricane.

Tropical Storm Josephine was out there, too.

---

Melinda Deslatte reported from Baton Rouge. Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Becky Bohrer in New Orleans, Deb Reichmann in Baton Rouge, Janet McConnaughey and Alan Sayre in Hammond, and Juanita Cousins in Montgomery, Ala. also contributed to this report.

Palin casts herself as Washington outsider

Palin casts herself as Washington outsider

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., greets his vice presidential running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as their families watch as he arrives in Minneapolis, where he will attend the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin cast herself as an outsider and took a swipe at Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday in what was the most anticipated speech of the Republican National Convention. She pledged that as John McCain's running mate, she wanted to go to Washington not to seek the media's approval but "to serve the people of this country."

Depicting herself as "just your average hockey mom," Palin described her political career as mayor of her small town before her election as governor.

"Since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves," Palin said in excerpts of her remarks, released in advance of her appearance. "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a `community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Palin didn't mention Obama by name but her target was obvious: Obama began his political life as a community organizer.

Palin also said she was not part of the permanent "Washington elite." She said some in the media think that makes her unqualified.

"Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of the country," Palin said.

Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, dies

Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Don LaFontaine, the man who popularized the catch phrase "In a world where..." and lent his voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68. LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.
LaFontaine made more than 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.
In a rare on-screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for a car insurance company where he played himself telling a customer, "In a world where both of our cars were totally under water..."
In an interview last year, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.
"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to," he said of his viewers. "That's very easily done by saying, `In a world where ... violence rules.' `In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene."
LaFontaine insisted he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.
LaFontaine went on to work in the promo industry in the early 1960s. As an audio engineer, he produced radio spots for movies with producer Floyd Peterson.
When an announcer didn't show up for a recording session in 1965, LaFontaine voiced his first narration, a promo for the film, "Gunfighters of Casa Grande." The client, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, liked his performance.
LaFontaine remained active until recently, averaging seven to 10 voiceover sessions a day. He worked from a home studio his wife nicknamed "The Hole," where his fax machine delivered scripts.
LaFontaine is survived by his wife, the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three daughters.
His funeral arrangements were pending.

Campaign money hurts Palin's outsider image

Campaign money hurts Palin's outsider image

WASHINGTON (AP) -- GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a public corruption scandal that led to the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens.
The contributions, made during Palin's failed 2002 bid to become Alaska's lieutenant governor, were not illegal for her to accept. But they show how Palin, a self-proclaimed reformer who has bucked Stevens and his allies, is nonetheless a product of a political system in Alaska now under the cloud of an ongoing FBI investigation.
It's the latest in a string of revelations that have forced John McCain's campaign to defend his choice and the thoroughness of the background check of Palin, 44, a little-known governor who is new to the national stage. Palin stunned delegates at the GOP convention Monday when she announced through the McCain campaign that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.
With the convention still abuzz, the list of potentially embarrassing details grew Tuesday:
-Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.
-Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting secession from the United States.
-A private attorney has been authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.
-She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.
And this: Bristol Palin's boyfriend, Levi Johnston, plans to join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention, the boy's mother said. He left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family in St. Paul, Minn.
Defending his choice and the team that helped pick her, McCain said Tuesday that "the vetting process was completely thorough." Campaign advisers at the convention in St. Paul, Minn., said Palin filled out a survey with 70 questions, including: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?
McCain's aides maintained that Palin was a finalist from the start
But a senior Republican familiar with the search, who requested anonymity when speaking without authorization, said Palin had all but fallen from the radar until late in the summer when McCain - apparently unsatisfied with his working list - asked for more alternatives. Suddenly, she was a finalist.
When she was introduced as McCain's running mate last week, Palin portrayed herself as a political maverick in McCain's mold: "I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies and the 'good old boy' network,'" she said.
But Alaska's first female governor has at times benefited from Alaska's entrenched political system.
As Palin campaigned unsuccessfully in 2002 to become lieutenant governor, she received contributions from executives at VECO Corp., a powerful Alaska oil field services company. Company founder Bill Allen has admitted the company steers its donations through a "special bonus program" in which executives received money and the company instructed them to donate it to favored politicians.
Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges. He admitted the program violated federal tax laws and said it was used to keep his political allies flush with cash.
"If they're working with the oil industry, I'd like to help with their campaigns," Allen testified last year in the corruption trial of a former state lawmaker.
Steve Schmidt, senior adviser to the McCain campaign, dismissed the idea that a few campaign contributions years ago in any way diminished Palin's record as a reformer. "Gov. Palin's record fighting corruption and taking on these issues in Alaska speaks for itself," he said Tuesday.
Since Palin's nomination last week, these issues also are raising eyebrows:
-In her earlier career as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to help the tiny town secure at least 14 earmarks, worth $27 million between 2000-2003. McCain has touted Palin as a force in his long battle against earmarks.
-Her husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin herself never registered as a member of the party, according to state officials, though party members said she attended a 1994 convention with her husband.
-The state legislature is investigating whether she had Alaska's public safety commissioner fired after he refused to dismiss a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister. Lawyer Thomas Van Flein said he is representing Palin both personally and in her official capacity as governor. He can bill the state up to $95,000.
-Palin opposed the U.S. government's listing of a variety of animals as endangered, including the polar bear and the beluga whale, both of which inhabit areas also rich in oil and natural gas.
-Palin previously acknowledged she smoked marijuana but said in a 2006 interview she no longer used the drug. "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," she said.
- Palin's management style has come under scrutiny. When taking over as mayor of Wasilla, she asked top officials to submit resignation letters, resulting in several departures, including that of the police chief. The chief claimed it was because he supported her opponent in the mayor's race.
-Under her leadership this year, Alaska asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from Stevens, one of McCain's top adversaries. That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress.
Palin has had her share of run-ins with Stevens, including a dustup earlier this year in which Stevens accused Palin of not being enthusiastic enough about his efforts to bring federal earmark money to Alaska. She has also called on Stevens' son, Ben, to resign as national committeeman for the state party.
She was among the first Alaska Republicans to urge Stevens to answer questions about the FBI investigation.
In the fundraising corruption probe, VECO founder Allen is cooperating with an FBI investigation that has already sent several state political figures to prison. He is expected to be the Justice Department's star witness at Stevens' trial later this month when he testifies about home renovations and other gifts he provided the longtime senator - gifts Stevens is charged with concealing on Senate documents.
Palin received $500, the maximum amount allowed by law, from Allen and VECO vice president Rick Smith. Several other VECO managers, including Pete Leathard, who came up with the idea for the special bonus program, also donated the maximum. Allen's son, a VECO employee, also donated $500. All the checks were donated the same day, except for Leathard's, which was dated two days after the rest.
John Cramer, one of Palin's treasurers for her 2002 campaign, said he doesn't remember any indications that the money came from a special company program.
The donations aren't evidence of corruption, and Palin is not among the lawmakers under investigation in the VECO case. But they undermine arguments that Palin has broken from Alaska's Republican machine, including Stevens.
"If you can take on Ted Stevens and that crowd in Alaska, you can handle the Russians," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, told ABC News this week.
But Palin didn't reach the governor's office picking fights with the Senate's longest-serving Republican. She was a director for a nonprofit group Stevens set up to increase the number of Republican women in government. Stevens also campaigned for Palin in 2006 and appeared in a political advertisement for her.
Palin has had her share of run-ins with Stevens, including a dustup earlier this year in which Stevens accused Palin of not being enthusiastic enough about his efforts to bring federal earmark money to Alaska. She has also called on Stevens' son, Ben, to resign as national committeeman for the state party.
She was among the first Alaska Republicans to urge Stevens to answer questions about the FBI investigation. But she did not urge him to resign after his indictment, as she did after a state lawmaker was indicted. She said Stevens "has dedicated his life to the betterment of the state."

McCain says Palin thoroughly checked

McCain says Palin thoroughly checked

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., center, gives a brief statement during a media availability during a stop at a fire house in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Republican John McCain said Tuesday he's satisfied that Sarah Palin's background was properly checked out before the Alaska governor joined the Republican ticket. He predicted that public excitement about her candidacy will increase after her address to the GOP convention on Wednesday.

McCain visited fire houses in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and was due to arrive at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday.

Asked about whether Palin's background was thoroughly checked out before he selected her, McCain told reporters in Philadelphia: "The vetting process was completely thorough and I'm grateful for the results."

Later, after visiting a firehouse outside Cleveland in Brecksville, Ohio, McCain added: "I just want to repeat again how excited I am to have Sarah Palin, the great governor of Alaska, as my running mate."

"America is excited and they're going to be even more excited once they see her tomorrow night," he said. "I'm very, very proud of the impression she's made on all of America and I look forward to serving with her."

In St. Paul, Minn., campaign advisers vehemently defended the Palin review. They said that as part of the review, Palin filled out a 70-question survey with questions that included: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?

Questions about the thoroughness of the review of Palin came up after news surfaced that her unmarried teenage daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, and that the Alaska governor has retained a private attorney to represent her in an investigation into the firing of the state public safety commissioner.

The lawyer who conducted the background review said Palin voluntarily told McCain's campaign about Bristol's' pregnancy, and about her husband's 2-decade-old DUI arrest during questioning as part of the vice presidential search process.

The Alaska governor also greatly detailed the dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner that has touched off a legislative investigation, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

Palin underwent a "full and complete" background examination before McCain chose her as his running mate, Culvahouse said. Asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review already has been made public, he said: "I think so. Yeah, I think so. Correct."

McCain's campaign has been trying to tamp down questions about whether the Arizona senator's team adequately researched his surprise vice presidential selection.

"Sure, there is concern about how much vetting was done," said Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican and former Pennsylvania senator. "But I don't think that anything that's been brought up right now hurts her at all and it may, in many respects, enhance her."

Since McCain publicly disclosed his running mate on Friday, the notion of a shoddy, rushed review has been stoked repeatedly.

First, a campaign-issued timeline said McCain initially met Palin in February, then held one phone conversation with her last week before inviting her to Arizona, where he met with her a second time and offered her the job Thursday.

Then came the campaign's disclosure that 17-year-old Bristol Palin is pregnant. The father is Levi Johnston, 18, who played hockey at Bristol's high school and was flying to Minnesota to join the Palin family at the convention.

The campaign also disclosed that Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, then age 22, was arrested in 1986 in Alaska for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Shortly after Palin was named to the ticket, McCain's campaign dispatched a team of a dozen communications operatives and lawyers to Alaska. That fueled speculation that a comprehensive examination of Palin's record and past was incomplete and being done only after she was placed on the ticket.

Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser, said no matter who the nominee was, the campaign was ready to send a "jump team" to the No. 2's home state to work with the nominee's staff, work with the local media and help handle requests from the national media for information, and answer questions about documents that were part of the review.

At several points throughout the process, McCain's team warned Palin that the scrutiny into her private life would be intense and that there was nothing she could do to prepare for it.

Bush praises McCain, Republicans defend Palin

Bush praises McCain, Republicans defend Palin

U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., waves as he tours the podium at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008. Lieberman is scheduled to speak Tuesday night.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- President Bush, relegated to a minor role at the Republican National Convention, praised John McCain Tuesday night as "ready to lead this nation," a courageous candidate who supported the war in Iraq despite risks to his campaign for the White House.

As Bush addressed the convention from the White House - his speech was to last less than eight minutes - Republicans in St. Paul defended McCain's vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin. The governor of Alaska is "from a small town, with small town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family," former Sen. Fred Thompson said in convention remarks released in advance.

He said McCain's decision to place her on the ticket "has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic." In the days since her selection, Palin has disclosed that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, and that a lawyer has been retained to represent her in an unfolding investigation in Alaska into the dismissal of a state employee.

"We need a president who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade," Thompson added.

Bush's remarks, also as prepared for delivery Tuesday night, reprised national security themes that propelled him to re-election in 2004.

"We live in a dangerous world," he said, "And we need a president who understands the lessons of Sept. 11, 2001: that to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen and not wait to be hit again."

Bush's brief cameo was highly unusual for a two-term president addressing his own party's convention as he prepared to leave office. His aides suggested the sequence of events flowed naturally from his decision to travel to Louisiana on Wednesday to see the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav.

But his approval ratings are in the 30 percent range, and with polls making it clear the nation is ready for a change, the McCain campaign indicated there was no need for him to travel to the convention city.

Republicans awarded one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut senator, a prime-time speaking slot Tuesday night as they courted millions of independent voters essential to McCain's presidential hopes.

Bush - not so much.

And Vice President Cheney not at all.

With his dismal approval ratings, Bush was given only a few minutes to speak.

He said that McCain's independence and character had changed history last year at a time Democrats were seeking to "cut off funds for our troops, when he endorsed the decision to deploy thousands of additional troops to Iraq."

"Some told him that his early and consistent call for more troops would put his presidential campaign at risk," Bush said. "He told them he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war."

With little more than two months remaining in the White House campaign, polls show a close race between McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. Each man draws natural strength from his party members, leaving independents as the focus of much of the campaign.

A daily Gallup tracking poll released on Monday showed the candidates basically tied with independents, 31 percent for McCain to 29 percent for Obama. It said 36 percent of those surveyed described themselves as independents. A CBS survey had it 43-37 for Obama, a slight advantage given the margin of error.

One day after a frightening Gulf Coast hurricane prompted a subdued opening to the McCain convention, political combat enjoyed a resurgence.

McCain's aides disputed a claim that vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin had once been a member of a third party - and accused Democratic rival Obama's camp of spreading false information.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that as far as he'd seen, "the only person talking about her being in the Alaska Independence Party is the head of the Alaska Independence Party."

"Their gripe is with those folks," he said of the McCain campaign.

After disclosures that an attorney has been hired to represent Palin in an investigation into an Alaska controversy, and that her unmarried daughter was pregnant, McCain said of his campaign's background checks: The "vetting process was completely thorough and I'm grateful for the results."

In his prepared remarks, Thompson extolled McCain as possessing "the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders. Strength. Courage. Humanity. Wisdom, Duty. Honor."

Well known as an actor for his roles in "Law & Order" and elsewhere, he added that "others were talking reform; John McCain led the effort to make reform happen."

After a political time-out of sorts on the convention's opening day, when Hurricane Gustav threatened New Orleans, Republicans repackaged what had been four days of speechmaking into three.

The schedule calls for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to give the convention's keynote speech Wednesday, the same evening delegates deliver the party's nominations to McCain and Palin. The 72-year-old presidential hopeful delivers his acceptance speech before a prime time audience of millions on Thursday.

The newly minted ticket is scheduled to leave the convention city on Friday for an eight-week sprint to Election Day.

The decision to place Lieberman out front on the convention's second night capped an unprecedented political migration. Only eight years ago, he stood before a cheering throng at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and accepted the nomination as Al Gore's running mate.

In the years since, he lost badly in 2004 when he sought the Democratic presidential nomination, lost a Democratic nomination for a new term at home in Connecticut in 2006, then recovered quickly to win re-election as an independent.

Back in the Senate, his vote allows the Democrats to command a narrow majority, yet he has been one of the most outspoken supporters of the war in Iraq. He has traveled widely with McCain in recent months, and occasionally has angered Democrats with remarks critical of Obama.

"I'm not going to spend any time tonight attacking Sen. Obama," he said in a pre-speech interview with CNN. He said his objective was to explain "why I am an independent Democrat voting for Sen. McCain."

McCain and his aides insisted Palin had been checked out thoroughly, and there was little evidence they were concerned about her.

"I haven't seen anything that comes out about her that in any way troubles me or shakes my confidence in her. All it has done for me is say she is a human person with a real family," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was McCain's rival during the battle for the party nomination.

Protesters outside the hall vowed to resume demonstrations that turned violent on Monday and resulted in 286 arrests.

WVSR-AM Sports at Phila. Front Page News, Sisters set up all-Williams quarterfinal at Open

WVSR-AM Sports at Phila. Front Page News, Sisters set up all-Williams quarterfinal at Open

Serena Williams, of the United States, returns against Severine Bremond, of France, during their match at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Monday, Sept. 1, 2008.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Now comes a challenge for Venus Williams and Serena Williams at the U.S. Open: a match against each other.

Except unlike so many of their all-in-the-family faceoffs at Grand Slam tournaments, including at Wimbledon in July, this Williams vs. Williams showdown will not decide the championship. Instead, this one will come in the quarterfinals.

Both advanced through the fourth round quite easily Monday. The No. 7-seeded Venus dismissed No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-3, before No. 4 Serena dispatched wild-card entrant Severine Bremond of France 6-2, 6-2 at night.

"Even the semis would have been better than the quarterfinals, but at least one of us will make it to the semis," Serena told the crowd during an on-court interview. "I've got probably the toughest match of the tournament coming up next, so I've got to be ready."

Some sisters make plans to go shopping together, say, or to catch a movie. These siblings keep meeting up on tennis courts at the sport's highest levels.

"The best part is that we're still here," Venus said, "going stronger than ever, in my opinion."

Their matchup Wednesday will be a tiebreaker of sorts.

They've played 16 times as professionals, with each winning eight. That includes 10 meetings at major tournaments, with each winning five. The most recent was when Venus beat Serena for the title at the All England Club, the seventh all-Williams Grand Slam final.

"I would love to have a winning record," Venus said. "I have a chance."

Because of the luck of the pre-tournament draw, they were placed in the same portion of the bracket in New York - much to the disappointment of them, U.S. Open organizers and TV types. Even other players.

"For sure, it would have been better for the crowd if it was a final," Bremond said. "It would have been a very good final."

That certainly rings true: Venus has lost a total of 15 games through four matches at Flushing Meadows, while Serena has lost 14.

Of the eight women left in the tournament, only two have won a Grand Slam title: Serena leads all active players with eight, and Venus is right behind with seven.

They won every U.S. Open women's singles championship from 1999 to 2002, meeting in the finals the last two years in that span. Since then, though, Serena hasn't made it past the quarterfinals here, and Venus has only reached one semifinal.

Also advancing to the women's quarterfinals with victories Monday were No. 6 Dinara Safina, who defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5, 6-0, and No. 16 Flavia Pennetta, who beat No. 32 Amelie Mauresmo 6-3, 6-0.

In men's action, No. 1 Rafael Nadal faced a tough challenge from 55th-ranked Sam Querrey, a 20-year-old Californian who never before had been to the fourth round at a major tournament.

Querrey hung in during extended baseline rallies, and even briefly led in the third set, before losing 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-3.

Nadal owns four titles from the French Open and one from Wimbledon, but he's never been as far as the U.S. Open semifinals. He'll try to take care of that gap on his resume when he meets another unseeded American, Mardy Fish, in the quarterfinals.

Also advancing: No. 17 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who ended the run of Kei Nishikori, the first Japanese man to reach the U.S. Open's fourth round in the 40-year Open era. Del Potro won the contest between teenagers 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 for his 23rd consecutive victory.

Del Potro will face No. 6 Andy Murray or No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka, who were playing Monday night's last match.

Fish beat a seeded player for the third consecutive match, serve-and-volleying his way past No. 32 Gael Monfils in straight sets Monday.

As for facing Nadal?

"I feel like a guy with my style of play is someone that he doesn't want to see," said Fish, who kept charging forward against Monfils and won the point of 45 of 69 trips to the net. "You've got to be able to finish points quickly. He's going to last longer than anybody. He wants to keep the points as long as possible and run the guys down, kind of body-blow after body-blow."

Nadal, who's won 42 of his past 43 matches, had to work hard to wear down the 6-foot-6 Querrey. When Nadal served for a two-set lead, Querrey broke him at love. When Nadal was trying to put the kid away, serving with a 4-2 edge in the fourth set, Querrey compiled seven break points.

"The match was crazy like that, no?" Nadal said.

He saved each of those seven break points, though, and that pretty much was that.

"He had to earn it," Querrey noted proudly. "I didn't just give it to him."

Day of stunning Palin disclosures

Day of stunning Palin disclosures

Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, left, looks for her vehicle after arriving on a chartered plane with Cindy McCain, right, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, for the Republican National Convention at the Minneapolis International Airport in Bloomington, Minn., Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, said Monday her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was five months pregnant, the latest in a string of disclosures that left the McCain campaign defending his choice and the thoroughness of the background check of the little-known Alaska governor.

It was also revealed Monday that an attorney had been hired to represent Palin in a state ethics probe and that her husband, Todd, had been arrested for drunken driving two decades ago. The man who led McCain's vice presidential search team said he thought everything that came up as a possible red flag during the background check had now been made public.

"I think so," Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. told The Associated Press. "Yes. I think so. Correct."

The revelations threatened to steal any remaining thunder from Day One of the Republican National Convention, which already was overshadowed by Hurricane Gustav - and brought unwanted attention to the 44-year-old governor, a self-described "hockey mom" with little experience on the national stage.

The GOP convention had already been scaled back because of the hurricane, and just three days after McCain named Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Coming after the randomness of Gustav, the revelations added to the sense of unscriptedness hanging over the convention.

"Life happens," said McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, talking about the pregnancy story.

"An American family," added colleague Mark Salter.

In a brief respite from partisanship, Democratic rival Barack Obama weighed in: "I think people's families are off limits and people's children are especially off limits."

McCain aides said the announcement about the pregnancy of Palin's daughter, Bristol, was aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's own youngest son, born in April, was actually the daughter's

The national convention, which a political party counts on to send its candidate surging into the fall campaign, already had been relegated to a distant second to the hurricane on TV, in newspapers and on Internet Web sites.

The pregnancy statement, attributed to Sarah and Todd Palin and released by the campaign, said that Bristol Palin would keep her baby and marry the child's father, identified only as a young man named Levi. The baby is due in late December.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents," Sarah and Todd Palin said in their brief statement.

Palin had told McCain's team about the pregnancy and her husband's old DUI during lengthy discussions about her background, aides said. At several points, McCain's team warned Palin that the scrutiny into her private life would be intense and there was nothing she could do to prepare for it.

Shortly after her announcement, McCain's team dispatched a dozen operatives and lawyers to Alaska, fueling speculation that a comprehensive examination of Palin's past was incomplete and being done only after she was placed on the ticket. Culvahouse denied that, saying his team of 25 scoured public and private records to produce a 40-page, single-spaced report on each top candidate.

He didn't say how many candidates, nor who else made McCain's short list. Culvahouse did say Palin underwent a "full and complete" review.

Prominent religious conservatives, many of whom have been lukewarm toward McCain's candidacy, predicted that the pregnancy announcement would not diminish conservative Christian enthusiasm for the vice presidential hopeful, a staunch abortion opponent. In fact, there was talk that it might help.

"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect," said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. "Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord."

As for the Alaska probe, a Republican-dominated legislative committee is investigating whether Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

The state's attorney general, Talis Colberg, hired Thomas V. Van Flein more than two weeks ago to represent Palin and members of her staff, according to Van Flein. He has represented the Palin family in the past as a private attorney, according to a McCain aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Van Flein said he couldn't confirm representing the family because of attorney-client privilege.

"Did I know the Palins before the state hired me? Yes," he told The Associated Press.

"The governor of every state gets legal counsel, and this attorney is part of a weeks-old effort to provide this governor defense in a series of outlandish, politically motivated charges," said senior McCain adviser Tucker Eskew. "It is a matter of her job and is not recent, and it is not related to her selection on the McCain-Palin ticket."

In St. Paul, the convention opened on time, though the opening-day session was shortened because of the hurricane. From the convention podium, GOP officials asked delegates to take out their cell phones and text-message contributions to help in the relief effort.

McCain's wife, Cindy, and first lady Laura Bush made their own appeals for relief help in the convention hall later in the day.

The delegates approved the party platform and other business, but most of the opening-day speeches - all of which had been expected to acclaim McCain and assail Obama - were scrapped.

Palin was in Minnesota preparing for her Wednesday night nomination acceptance speech when the campaign released the pregnancy statement; her family was home in Alaska.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," the parents said.

The campaign said it was not disclosing the father's full name or age or how he and Bristol knew each other, citing privacy.

Sarah Palin's fifth child, a son named Trig, was born in April with Down syndrome. Internet bloggers have been suggesting that the child was actually born to Bristol Palin but that her mother, the 44-year-old Alaska governor, claimed to be the mother.

GOP convention opens with appeal for Gustav aid

GOP convention opens with appeal for Gustav aid

Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, speaks as first lady Laura Bush listens during the opening session of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Monday, Sept. 1, 2008.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Republicans, determined to propel John McCain to the White House, opened their storm-shortened national convention on Monday amid distractions involving running mate Sarah Palin. Police made more than 50 arrests in the surrounding streets as anti-war protests turned violent.

Delegates had scarcely settled into their seats when it was disclosed a lawyer had been hired to represent the Alaska governor in an investigation of her firing of the state's public safety commissioner. The other disclosure was personal, not political - the pregnancy of her 17-year-old unmarried daughter.

The convention's opening session was abbreviated as Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, sparing New Orleans the type of damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina almost exactly three years ago.

President Bush skipped his planned speech to go to disaster and relief centers, determined to avoid a repeat of the mismanagement of Katrina.

McCain was in Waterville, Ohio, where he helped pack supplies to be sent to the Gulf.

Both men's wives sparked cheers when they appeared before the delegates, shunning politics to urge contributions to help storm victims.

Virtually the only political business of the convention's 2 1/2-hour session was approval of a platform that sidestepped the Iraq War, one of the key issues in the campaign between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

"The waging of war - and the achieving of peace - should never be micromanaged in a party platform. ... In dealing with present conflicts or future crises, our next president must preserve all options," it said.

Outside the Xcel Center was a reminder of the passions the war stirs. Protesters smashed windows, punctured car tires and threw bottles, and there were reports that delegates from Connecticut were attacked as they stepped off their bus to attend the day's convention session.

Police used pepper spray to disperse demonstrators, and reported making at least 56 arrests.

The convention was less than 15 minutes old when Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked delegates to use their cell phones to text a five-digit code that would make a donation to the Red Cross for victims of the hurricane.

It was a theme that first lady Laura Bush and Cindy McCain picked up more than an hour later.

"This is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats," McCain said.

Added the first lady: "Our first priority for today and in the coming days is to ensure the safety and well-being of those living in the Gulf Coast region."

Behind the two women was a giant screen showing the names of state-approved charities in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

There was money news of a more conventional type, when John McCain's aides announced he had raised at least $47 million last month for the fall campaign against Democratic rival Barack Obama. It was the largest monthly amount to date for the GOP candidate.

While the opening day convention program was shorn of political rhetoric, aides said McCain was likely to deliver his nomination acceptance speech as scheduled on Thursday.

The program for Tuesday was in flux, officials said, although they said it was likely there would be more overt political speechmaking than on the opening day of the convention.

Some Republicans were eager for a more traditional convention week.

"When the storm passes and we can see that there are enough resources and that lives are not in danger any longer and help is on its way or in place, then that'll be the green light for us to enjoy the celebration we're all here for," said Kelly Burt, a delegate from California.

But what there was revolved around Palin, little know nationally until McCain named her his running mate last Friday.

An attorney has been hired to represent Palin in the legislature's investigation into the dismissal of public safety commissioner Walt Monegan, who was dismissed after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced the governor's sister.

"We have been hired to represent the Governor and the Governor's Office" in the investigation, wrote Anchorage attorney Thomas V. Van Flein.

"We fully welcome a fair inquiry into these allegations. ... Please know that we intend to cooperate with this investigation," the lawyer said.

As for Palin's daughter, McCain's campaign aides said Monday's statement was issued to rebut Internet rumors that the governor's four-month-old baby was, in fact, daughter Bristol's child.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," Sarah and Todd Palin said in the brief statement.

The father was identified in the statement as Levi, but the campaign said it was not disclosing his full name or age or how he and Bristol know each other, citing privacy.

Aides said Palin had informed McCain about her daughter's pregnancy before she was picked to be his running mate. At several points during the discussions, McCain's team warned the governor that the scrutiny of her private life would be intense and that there was nothing she could do to prepare for it.

"Senator McCain's view is this is a private family matter. As parents, (the Palins) love their daughter unconditionally and are going to support their daughter," said McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt.

"Life happens," he added.

Prominent religious conservatives, many of them long cool to McCain's candidacy, issued statements of support.

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, commended the Palins for "for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances."

------

Associated Press reporters Amy Forliti, Sara Kugler, Liz Sidoti and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Boondocks at Phila. Front Page News

Boondocks at Phila. Front Page News

Gustav only sideswipes New Orleans

Gustav only sideswipes New Orleans

Water fills a low area near the Eastside of the Industrial Canal as Hurricane Gustav came through afternoon Sept. 1, 2008, in New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A weaker-than-expected Hurricane Gustav swirled into the fishing villages and oil-and-gas towns of Louisiana's Cajun country Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that did little more than send water sloshing harmlessly over its rebuilt floodwalls.
It was the first test of New Orleans' new and improved levees, which are still being rebuilt three years after Hurricane Katrina. And it was a powerful demonstration of how federal, state and local officials learned some of the painful lessons of the catastrophic 2005 storm that killed 1,600 people.
"They made a much bigger deal out of it, bigger than it needed to be," 31-year-old security worker Gabriel Knight said in New Orleans' nearly empty French Quarter. "I was here with Katrina. That was a nightmare. This was nothing."
That did not mean the state came through the storm unscathed. A levee in the southeastern part of Louisiana was in danger of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. A ferry sunk. More than 1 million homes were without power. And the extent of any damage to the oil and gas industry was unclear.
But the biggest fear - that the levees surrounding the saucer-shaped city of New Orleans would break - hadn't been realized.
Wind-driven water sloshed over the top of the Industrial Canal's floodwall - the same structure that broke with disastrous consequences during Katrina - and several Ninth Ward streets close by were flooded with ankle- to knee-deep water. Still, city officials and the Army Corps of Engineers expressed confidence the levees would hold.
Maj. Tim Kurgan, a Corps spokesman, said late in the day: "We don't anticipate any problems, but we're still watching this storm because it has not passed the area yet."
Gustav blew ashore around 9:30 a.m. near Cocodrie (pronounced ko-ko-DREE), a low-lying community 72 miles southwest of New Orleans.
Forecasters had feared a catastrophic Category 4 storm on the 1-to-5 scale, but Gustav weakened as it drew close to land, coming ashore as a Category 2 with 110 mph winds. It quickly dropped to a Category 1 as it steamed inland toward Texas.
Authorities reported seven deaths related to the storm, all traffic deaths, including four people killed in Georgia when their car struck a tree. Before arriving in the U.S., Gustav was blamed for at least 94 deaths in the Caribbean.
In the days before the storm struck, nearly 2 million people fled coastal Louisiana under a mandatory evacuation order - a stark contrast from Katrina. Those evacuated included tens of thousands of poor, elderly and sick people who were put on buses and trains and taken to shelters and hotel rooms in several surrounding states.
It could be days until the full extent of the damage is known, especially in the fishing villages and oil-and-gas towns of bayou country, where rapid erosion in recent decades has destroyed swamps and robbed the area of a natural buffer against storms.
Keith Cologne of Chauvin, not far from Cocodrie, looked dejected after talking by telephone to a friend who didn't evacuate. "They said it's bad, real bad. There are roofs lying all over. It's all gone," said Cologne, staying at a hotel in Orange Beach, Ala.
In St. Mary Parish, to the west, Deputy Sheriff Troy Brown cleared roads with a chain saw as he went out to assess damage. He found uprooted trees, houses without some shingles, but few signs of monster hit. "Even the mobile homes are sitting there in one piece," Brown said.
Jude Duplantis, 52, who lives near Bayou Terrebonne, was outside with a push broom trying to clear leaves out of a gutter to keep runoff from backing up. Duplantis had spent part of the day driving around, surveying damage and dodging debris.
"Everything's like playing Nintendo when you're driving 'cause there's all this stuff in the road," he said, holding up his hands as if turning a steering wheel back and forth.
One community in southeastern Louisiana feared its levee wouldn't hold. The parish president called a local TV station to plea with any residents still there to flee, and crews moved sandbags and moving equipment into place to reinforce the levee and its metal floodgate. Though it was stressed, it didn't break.
It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. To the east of the city, state officials were unable to reach anyone at Port Fourchon, a vital energy industry hub where huge amounts of oil and gas are piped inland to refineries.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 25 percent of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output. Damage to those installations could cause gasoline prices at the pump to spike, although oil prices declined Monday.
While Katrina smashed the Gulf Coast with an epic storm surge that topped 27 feet, the surge this time in New Orleans reached 12 feet, near the top of the Industrial Canal, on the eastern side of the city.
Officials expressed confidence all day long that the flood defenses in the eastern part of the city would hold. They were more concerned about the West Bank of the Mississippi River, where the $15 billion in levee improvements begun after Katrina have yet to be completed. But those floodwalls appeared to be holding, too.
Gustav was quickly marching inland, reducing the prospect of heavy rain in southern Louisiana. "From what I've seen, New Orleans metro should be back in business" on Tuesday, said Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center.
But Read said the storm will slow down as it heads into Texas and possibly into Arkansas, and could bring 20 inches of rain to those areas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency stood ready to distribute enough cartons of food, water, blankets and other supplies to sustain 1 million people for three days - another contrast to Katrina, when thousands waited for rescue in the sweltering Superdome.
"With Katrina they didn't come and rescue us until the next day," said LaTriste Washington, 32, who stayed in her home during the 2005 hurricane and was rescued by boat. She was in a shelter in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday. "This time they were ready and had buses lined up for us to leave New Orleans."
President Bush skipped the opening day of a scaled-back Republican National Convention to monitor the storm's progress, and both Republicans and Democrats asked supporters to text-message donations to the Red Cross to help victims of the hurricane.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hinted the city could be reopened as early as Tuesday, once the city assesses damage and is sure its neighborhoods are safe. Drinking water continued to flow in the city and the pumps that keep it dry never shut down, two critical service failings that contributed to Katrina's toll. But two-thirds of the city's electric customers were without power, as the storm damaged transmission lines that snapped like rubber bands in the wind and knocked 35 substations out of service.
The decision to reopen the city was eagerly awaited by those who fled the coast and watched the storm unfold on TV from shelters across the region.
Fights broke out at an overcrowded shelter in Shreveport. People who had slept, eaten and lived on cots for days struggled to get news about home from the lone television in the entire center. Doctors worried about medications running out and seven people were hospitalized, all in stable condition.
"People are desperate. They don't know if they are going to have a place to go home to," said Emma McClure, 37, who was at the shelter with her three children, three sisters and some 20 nephews. "They had three years to plan this and now I wish I had stayed in the city like I did during Katrina."
In Mississippi, at least three people had to be rescued from the floodwaters. An abandoned building in Gulfport collapsed, a few homes in Biloxi were flooded, and the ground floor of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Biloxi's casino row was swamped with 2 1/2 feet of water. Katrina smashed the casino three years ago shortly before it was to open.
As Gustav passed, authorities turned their attention to Hurricane Hanna, which could come ashore in Georgia and South Carolina late in the week.
In New Orleans, many trees, light poles, traffic lights and signs had been blown down, and debris was strewn across the streets. But there was no flooding or major damage, and the storm brought only 3 inches of rain or less to the city. Police reported making just a single arrest.
Gerald Boulmay, 61, a hotel employee in New Orleans, emerged into a dry French Quarter not long after the rain stopped in midafternoon. The skies were brightening and the wind was breezy. But mindful of how the full extent of Katrina's damage did not become clear until the storm had passed, he was still worried about a levee breach.
"I don't think we're out of the woods," Boulmay said. "We still have to worry about the water."