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Get to know me, Obama says going into convention
 Sen. Edward Kennedy, right, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama in January. |
Sen. Barack Obama says this week’s Democratic National Convention would help give voters a better “sense of who I am” — and Obama could get some unexpected help.
Plans are in place for Sen. Edward Kennedy to make a dramatic appearance Monday on opening night — subject to whether he is up to making the trip, a top Obama campaign official said.
The Massachusetts Democrat had surgery June 2 for a brain tumor.
Top Kennedy staffers are in the convention city, and the Obama campaign official who is helping orchestrate the program tells CNN that he has been instructed “to presume [Kennedy] is coming and make preparations on the basis of him coming.”
The official program for Monday night calls for a videotaped message from Kennedy, but a Democratic source close to the senator’s family said Sunday night that the 76-year-old liberal icon “is itching to go and pushing back” at those who say it is too risky a trip to make.
Also scheduled to speak Monday night is Michelle Obama, the Illinois senator’s wife.
With the exception of one dramatic return to the Capitol for a crucial vote, Kennedy has been out of the public eye recuperating.
The sources said the final call would be made Monday in consultation with doctors and family members.
Kennedy endorsed Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary season. He was an active surrogate for Obama until suffering a seizure that led to the discovery of his brain cancer.
The Obama campaign, meanwhile, is trying to win over the working-class voters who supported Clinton in larger numbers in many states during the Democratic primaries.
Obama said Sunday he hopes those voters will conclude from the four-day convention that he is “sort of like us. He [Obama] comes from a middle-class background. He went to school on scholarships; he had to pay off student loans. He and his wife had to worry about child care.”
Also Sunday, a Democratic official said Clinton likely will release her delegates to Obama.
And the Democratic Party decided delegates from Michigan and Florida — states that had been penalized for moving their 2008 presidential primaries to January — will get full voting rights at the event. Ending the sanctions had been a goal of Clinton.
The moves answered some questions that lingered ahead of the convention, which starts Monday in Denver.
Clinton, who suspended her presidential campaign in June after Obama secured enough delegates to win the party’s nomination, will meet with her delegates at a reception in Denver on Wednesday afternoon — before that evening’s delegate vote on the nominee, said a Democratic official who asked not to be identified.
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines later gave CNN a statement on the meeting.
“[The reception is] an opportunity for Sen. Clinton to see her delegates — many for the first time since the primaries ended — thank them for their hard work and support and most importantly, to encourage them to support and work for Sen. Obama as strongly as she has in order to elect him in November,” Reines said.
Because Clinton suspended her campaign instead of dropping out, she kept the pledged delegates she earned in the primaries and caucuses.
Earlier this month, Obama’s campaign said it agreed to put Clinton’s name in nomination at the convention “in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation’s primary contests.”
Clinton already has urged the 18 million people who voted for her in the primaries to get behind Obama.
Between Monday’s convention opening and Thursday night’s acceptance speech by Obama at Denver’s Invesco Field, delegates are expected to ratify his nomination and that of his vice presidential pick, Sen. Joseph Biden, another former primary rival.
Obama faces Republican Sen. John McCain in November in the contest for the presidency. McCain’s campaign has poked at the old Obama-Clinton splits with a campaign ad claiming Clinton was passed over for the No. 2 spot because she was too honest about Obama’s perceived weaknesses.
“The truth hurt, and Obama didn’t like it,” McCain’s ad says.
But Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, an Obama supporter, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday: “This campaign is not about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
“His campaign is about George Bush and four more years of George Bush under John McCain,” Jackson said. “That message is going to echo clearly from this platform.”
A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Sunday night showed that Obama’s lead over McCain has evaporated. Forty-seven percent of those questioned are backing Obama, with an equal amount supporting McCain.
Taken after Biden’s selection, the poll showed that the number of Clinton Democrats who said they would vote for McCain increased 11 points since June, enough to account for most of the support McCain gained. Subscribe=>
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