9:32 p.m. Walter Mondale, who earlier today was reportedly asked for his credential, riding shotgun on his way out of the Pepsi Center parking lot.
9:27 p.m. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is holding court with Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry outside Pepsi Center
8:59 p.m. Benediction taking place now.
8:59 p.m. Obamas exchange ‘I love you’s” and say goodnight.
8:58 p.m. Youngest daughter talking to him.
8:57 p.m. 857 Obama appears on jumbotron from Kansas City, Mo.
“Now you know why I asked her out so many times even when she said no. You want a persistent president.”
8:55 p.m. Michelle wraps up speech. Band playing “Isn’t she lovely?” Waving. Daughters come out.
8:54 p.m. Says Barack was nervous driving oldest daughter home from the hospital as a baby “feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he’d struggled so hard for himself.”
8:52 p.m. “Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago,” she says.
8:49 p.m. Crowd on feet when Obama talks about win in Iowa.
8:51 p.m. Obama talking about how military folks should be treated when they come home: with good jobs, health care and mental health care.
8:47 p.m. Obama giving respect to Hillary Clinton. “who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling ”
8:45 p.m. Says Barack’s words from his days as an organizer stayed with her “he talked about the world as it is and the world the way it should be.”
8:43 p.m. Says Barack’s upbringing was very similar to hers: “raised with similar values, that you work hard for what you want in life, and that your word is your bond.”
8:41 p.m. Said father struggled with MS “used two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss.”
8:40 p.m. Says her daughters are the first things she thinks about when she wakes up in the morning and the last thing she thinks about at night.
8:39 p.m. “Each of us comes here by way of our own improbable journey,” says Obama.
8:37 p.m. Crowd goes wild for Michelle Obama as she takes the stage, wearing lovely blue dress.
8:35 p.m. Robinson says he and Michelle would talk in their shared, but divided room at night and she would tell him about who got picked on at school. Says that’s when he knew that Michelle would later fight for those people.
8:33 p.m. Robinson says late father would be proud of her, not because of whom she married, but because of the woman she’s become.
8:31 p.m. Michelle Obama would play the piano before his games, he says. Robinson said they were only allowed to watch one hour of TV a night.
8:31 p.m. “I’m Craig Robinson and Michelle Obama is my little sister.”
8:28 p.m. Michelle Obama video playing right now. Talking about her history. Barack makes an appearance in video.
8:28 p.m. Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalind are leaving the Pepsi Center in six-car motorcade with police escort.
8:17 p.m. Missouri senator Claire McCaskill takes the stage. Her son introduced her and urged people to sign up for text messages.
7:50 p.m. Sen. Edward Kennedy, ailing from a brain tumor, brought the crowd at the Democratic National Convention to its feet tonight with a surprise visit to the stage. Delegates waved “Kennedy” posters and burst into applause when the Massachusetts senator walked to the mike.
“It’s so wonderful to be here,” he said. “And nothing, nothing, is going to keep me from this special gathering.”
He vowed to be in Washington in January on the Senate floor, causing the crowd to erupt in cheers and begin chanting his name. Kennedy said Obama can bring better health care for all Americans.
“The hope begins anew … and the dream lives on,” he said.
7:42 p.m. Entertainer Tony Bennett has arrived at the Pepsi Center.
7:40 p.m. Kennedy clan comes onstage following speech. They just departed. Band playing “Celebration.”
7:39 p.m. “Hope rises again and dreams lives on,” Kennedy concluded. He spoke for about 7 minutes. Band playing “Still the One.”
7:38 p.m. “When John Kennedy talked of going to the moon people didn’t say it’s too far to get there we shouldn’t even try. Our people answered his call and rose to the challenge,” Kennedy says.
7:37 p.m. “Barack Obama will close book against gender, race, group against group and straight and gay.”
7:36 p.m. “I pledge to you I will be there on the floor of the United States Senate next January,” Kennedy said. “This is the cause of my life… new hope.” Having decent, quality health care.
7:34 p.m. “I come here to restore ideals,” says Kennedy. “I am strengthened by family and friendship.”
7:33 p.m. “I come here to restore ideals,” says Kennedy. “I am strengthened by family and friendship.”
7:32 p.m. “It is so wonderful to be here.” says Kennedy. “Nothing is going to keep me from this special gathering.”
7:30 p.m. The crowd goes crazy for Sen. Ted Kennedy as he walks out on stage.
7:21 p.m. Convention honors Edward Kennedy: Caroline Kennedy said her uncle and Barack Obama share “a commitment to the timeless ideals of justice and fairness, service and sacrifice.”
“Leaders like them come along rarely. But once or twice in a lifetime, they come along just when we need them the most,” she said. “This is one of those moments.”
The crowd was on its feet cheering as she walked on stage, “Sweet Caroline” playing in the background.
“I have never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them – but I do now,” she said, rousing cheers “And I know someone else who’s been inspired all over again by Senator Obama. In our family, he’s known as Uncle Teddy. ”
She said her uncle has been “a Senator for all who believe in a dream that’s never died.”
A video tribute to the ailing Massachusetts senator, who has brain cancer, quieted the crowd of delegates, who turned to face giant video screens. They erupted in raucous cheers at the sight of the senator pounding a podium and laughter at seeing him conduct an orchestra.
7:17 p.m. Caroline Kennedy takes podium. Everyone waving Kennedy signs.
“Everywhere I go in this country people are telling me Barack Obama is making them feel hopeful – the way my father did when he was president,” says Kennedy. “I never had anyone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them, but I do now.”
7:13 p.m. It’s a constant traffic jam on the convention floor, with delegates, press, and other officials.
With John King, Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer on a mini stage near the Pennsylvania delegation, traffic in that area was practically a standstill.
“I’m trying to get a photo of Anderson Cooper,” said Carole Dabbs, Georgia delegate. “He’s the number one person I wanted to see.”
Dabbs, a member of the Georgia Democratic Party is pledged to Clinton, but will support Barack Obama in November.
“I won’t wait until November,” she said, signaling that she will begin campaigning for the Illinois senator when she returns home.
6:51 p.m. U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois recalled how party leaders were skeptical of Barack Obama when the son of Chicago first ran for office. They wondered who the man with a “father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas and a funny name” was, Jackson said.
But Barack quickly won over Illinois, the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson said.
“Illinois is America,” Jackson said. “America, we need you to be with Barack Obama.”
Jackson said Obama can “heal the wounds of the last eight years,” bringing chants of “Obama! Obama!”
“He is the leader we need right now,” Jackson said.
6:48 p.m. Barack Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng took the stage to offer insight on her brother and how their upbringing has influenced the Democratic nominee.
She said that their mother was “above all she was a storyteller.” She told them stories that talked about mankind’s “deepest humanity.”
“He opened my mind and spirit to a broader world, he took me to festivals museums and street fairs, and taught me to stand up for what I believe,” she said. “In these challenging times we need those skills of unwavering responsibility.”
She said that bountiful opportunity is a gift Obama has given to the American people throughout the campaign.
Soetoro is a high school history teacher in Hawaii.
6:34 p.m. As “Georgia On My Mind” blared through the Pepsi Center, former president Jimmy Carter took the convention stage. He waved and smiled, and then exited the platform without speaking.
Before his appearance, delegates watched Carter on giant video screens tonight, the former president speaking about his experience rebuilding homes in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Carter said the hurricane exposed problems in America’s government.
“It sent signals around the world that our own government couldn’t take care of our own people,” Carter said on the video.
6:27 p.m. They say the Senate is a club, and its Democratic members are starting to take the stage in Denver.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota appeared first and credited Obama with spearheading Congress’ 2007 ethics reform effort.
Obama called her shortly after she was elected in 2006, Klobuchar said, in the group that helped Democrats regain control of Congress.
“We weren’t even sworn in yet and he was already determined to break the lock that lobbyists had on Washington,” Klobuchar said.
Within a few hours, he had all the new senators on the phone, she said. By the time she reached Washington “We had an ethics reform plan in place.”
“We said drug company lobbyists shouldn’t be able to prescribe our health care, and we said that never again will energy policy be made from an undisclosed location,” Klobuchar said to cheers.
The ethics reform bill passed in 2007.
Congress started to change in 2006, Klobuchar said.
“Now in 2008 it’s time to complete that change and put Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House,” Klobuchar said.
6:21 p.m. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, permanent chair of the Democratic convention, jazzed up the crowd tonight, saying the convention will nominate a “new leader for our time.” Delgates chanted “Nancy! Nancy!” and waved flags as she took the stage.
Pelosi called the convention the “culmination of the historic race” that brought millions of voters to the polls. And she took time to thank Hillary Clinton.
“Our party and our country have been strengthened by her candidacy,” she said.
Pelosi touted the Democratic leadership’s accomplishments and bashed President Bush and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
“We have started to reclaim the American dream for all Americans,” she said. “We can’t afford any more of the same failed Republican policies.”
President Bush instituted “failed policies” on health care, minimum wage and the economy, she said.
Pelosi repeated the phrase “Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong” so many times the delegates began to shout it with her.
4:40 p.m. His voice hoarse, Hickenlooper vowed the image of Denver and the Rocky Mountains would be “forever etched into our nation’s collective memory” after the convention.
The “collaborative spirit of the west,” he said, “represents the future of American politics.”
Delegates, many of whom still weren’t in their seats, hardly paid much attention to Hickenlooper. Most were still milling around the floor of the Pepsi Center, flashing pictures and chatting. But they cheered loudly when the mayor mentioned the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
“Barack Obama represents the change we need,” Hickenlooper said. “Barack Obama inspires us to work harder.”
4:35 p.m. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper welcomed delegates to the Democratic National Convention this afterrnoon, saying that pro-business and pro-environmental policies “go hand in hand.”
That’s why Barack Obama has “electrified” voters in the region, Hickenlooper said.
“From mining towns and cattle ranches, to solar energy farms and technology empires, Denver continually evolved,” he said. “In this region that has seen so much change, we gather here to say that we – as a country – need that change.”
Hickenlooper worked nights and weekends for 18 months to help raise the majority of the cash to host the convention. The Denver host committee had to raise $40.6 million in private cash and $11 million in donated goods and services before the Obama campaign made its switch to Invesco Field at Mile High.
3:25 p.m. Democratic National Committee CEO the Rev. Leah Daughtry greeted the crowd.
“Good afternoon my sister and brother Americans,” Daughtry said. “As the daughter of four generations of pastors, I am particularly pleased to be here and serve as host.
“We are here to create an agenda for the benefit of all Americans,” she said in pastorly cadence
“We Americas are determined we need change. We cannot afford four more years of the same failed policies,” Daughtry said. “It is our sacred resposibility to advocate for all the people.”
Then she led the small crowd in a brief chant of “Yes We Can.”
Western Democrats then started appearing in a video, saying why Democrats are winning races in the Mountain West. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, Grace Napolitano, governor of Arizona, and Gov. Bill Ritter each gave their take, talking about renewable energy, how Democrats are innovative and collaborative.
3:01 p.m. Editor: Howard Dean gaveled convention to order and declared: “We will demonstrate to all of America why we need Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House.
