By Michael H. Cottman
This week in Denver, the Democratic Party will make history by nominating Barack Obama as the nation's first African American presidential candidate.
Voters will be carefully watching Obama – and his newly-selected running mate Joe Biden, who many say suffers from sticking his foot in his mouth at the most inappropriate times.
Obama’s aides will be asking Biden to stick to the scripts and try not to stray from his carefully-prepared text.
During the primary campaign, Biden drew criticism from some blacks saying: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
Republicans wasted no time releasing television ads of Biden criticizing Obama during the primary campaign and saying Obama lacks the experience to lead the country. And the Republican National Committee has initiated a new clock on its website counting the hours, minutes and seconds until Biden's next gaffe on the campaign trail.
Despite Biden’s clumsy characterization of Obama, many African Americans generally seem to embrace Biden.
Some like his forthright style, his easy-going nature, and others appreciate his years of experience in Congress and his hard work on crime control. And some black voters find appeal in his modest beginnings and his perceived understanding of regular folks and the difficulty some Americans are having making ends meet in an unstable economy.
The wild card, however, is whether Biden, an able communicator, will be able to convince white voters -- and rural whites in particular -- to rally around a black man for president.
But black conservatives caution that Obama’s tax hike plan will eventually put minority businesses out of business for good. They say it’s ironic that Obama, who is trying to become the nation’s first black president, could ruin many woman-owned and minority-owned businesses – the nation’s fastest growing enterprises.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Behind the scenes this week during the Democratic National Convention, political analysts and politicians will discuss Obama’s slip in the polls; he’s now locked in a tie with Republican Sen. John McCain and involved in a heavily competitive race, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The gray-haired Biden, who is also a Roman Catholic, brings to the candidacy outreach to seniors and to whites who may be reluctant to vote for Obama because of Obama's ties to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright and rumors that Obama is Muslim.
And Obama and Biden may have other problems to consider: They may have to ease tensions among those who feel Clinton should have been on the ticket and may consider some kind of protest.
Some Clinton supporters now say Obama was not gracious to her because he didn’t consider Clinton as a serious running mate and he should have sought Clinton's advice for his vice presidential choice.
Even Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama’s presidential rival, is getting into the act. McCain just released a new television ad criticizing Obama for snubbing Clinton as his running mate.
Meanwhile, the Clintons will be speaking in prime time on back-to-back days in Denver and some Democratic insiders question why the couple needs to take two days for speeches when neither Clinton will be crowned as the Democratic nominee.
The Democratic convention ends Friday and as Obama and Biden head off to campaign across the country, the Clintons will appear only in their rear-view mirrors.
Maybe.
