2012 Presidential Election, Democratic National Convention | featured news

Can President Obama and his Democrats successfully make their case for another four years? Here are five things to watch for at this week's DNC.

The famously fractious party that tore itself apart in the 1960s and 1970s over civil rights and the Vietnam War, that lost a series of blowout presidential elections in the 1980s and painfully reinvented itself in the 1990s, faces little of the infighting or self-doubt that for decades seemed as much a part of being a Democrat as worshiping FDR or watching the South, a former party bastion, inexorably slip away.

One of the networks broadcasting this week's Democratic convention could be called Obama TV. The Democratic National Convention Committee is promoting "unprecedented interactive coverage" of this week's confab, built around the first-ever live-streaming of the entire event featuring interviews with delegates, President Obama campaign officials, and various celebrities.

Just minutes after the end of the Republican convention, President Obama appealed to his supporters for campaign cash. "Tonight was their night," Obama wrote in an e-mail. "But our focus must be on tomorrow." And presumably next week, when Obama and the Democrats hold their own convention in Charlotte.

Mitt Romney has moved into a narrow lead over U.S. President Barack Obama in a small bounce for him from the Republican National Convention, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Thursday... So-called convention "bounces" are typically short-lived. With Obama to accept his party's nomination for a second term next week at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, the incumbent could quickly rebound.

Both parties’ vice presidential hopefuls earn lukewarm reviews from Americans, marking a lackluster introduction for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and a major drop-off in popularity for Vice President Biden as the Republican and Democratic conventions near, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Sarah Palin and George W. Bush won't be in Tampa, Fla. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Al Gore won't make the trip to Charlotte, N.C. And scores of other Republican and Democratic stars are taking a pass as their parties gather for this year's national conventions....

Some Democrats in tough races are returning their invitations to the Democratic National Convention with a note attached: Thanks, but no thanks.... Democrats aren't the only ones thinking twice about showing up for their party's big party. Former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican seeking a Senate seat in liberal-leaning Hawaii, said she won't attend the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August. The same holds true for Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., and former Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. Both are seeking Senate seats.