Still, Democrats said Obama should offer a concrete idea of what he would do as President, to counter the effort by Republicans to present him as a showman.

“I think in the case of McCain, they need to frame him,” said Kerry, an early Obama supporter, who four years ago was this party’s presidential nominee. “Viscerally, my feeling is they’ve got to come back at him hard.”

There are some things that may be beyond the control of the Obama campaign. Most pressing, Democrats said they were worried that the tensions between supporters of Hillary and Obama would spill into public view after her name is entered into nomination, particularly after Obama bypassed Clinton in choosing Biden.

Several Democrats said they feared that even a clash between a small handful of Clinton and Obama supporters would draw disproportionate attention from news media outlets on the search for just this kind of tension.

The Obama campaign has created a rapid response team — led by Craig Smith, a former top operative in the Clinton world — to go to the convention floor at the first sign of trouble from Hillary supporters on the floor.

SCHEDULE

Democratic Convention,

August 25-28

WHERE

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado

Thursday: Invesco Field, Mile High; home of Denver Broncos of the NFL. Stadium can seat 75,000 people, this is where Obama will make his acceptance speech

WHEN

Convention begins late on Monday. Denver is 11 and a half hours behind Indian Standard Time.

... contd.