Today on the presidential campaign trail

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IN THE HEADLINES

Democrats bicker over how hard to hit McCain as Clintons take center stage next 2 days ... Using Clinton's words against Obama, McCain returns to that ominous 3 a.m. phone call ... Obama sounds economic themes on way to Denver ... Republicans debate platform shaped by conservative base, McCain ... Former president warns of global warming, trying to float above convention fray ... Biden offers mea culpa for past mistakes ... McCain tells veterans he welcomes debate over Iraq

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Democrats bicker over how hard to hit McCain

DENVER (AP) — Democrats bickered among themselves Tuesday about how hard to attack John McCain as the party's former dominant couple — Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton — took center stage at Barack Obama's political coronation.

With convention strains persisting between Obama and some former Hillary Clinton supporters, Republicans brought out a new ad pointedly invoking her past criticism that Obama wasn't ready to lead.

The next two days give star billing to the old Clinton regime even as the party delivers its presidential nomination to Obama.

Obama's former rival was to urge her disappointed supporters to line up in unity behind him in a prime-time speech Tuesday night. She did a midday check of the convention-hall podium, accompanied by daughter Chelsea.

Her husband, former President Clinton, speaks Wednesday night.

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McCain ad returns to Clinton's 3 a.m. phone call

PHOENIX (AP) — Republican John McCain is stealing a chunk from Hillary Rodham Clinton's best-known TV attack, questioning in his own ad whether Barack Obama is ready for that 3 a.m. phone call signaling an international crisis.

The McCain spot debuted Tuesday just hours before Clinton was set to praise Obama in an address at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Opening with a scene lifted from Clinton's old ad, the McCain spot then switches to scenes of war, missiles and hooded gunmen as an announcer says: "Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism." Clinton herself is shown saying: "I know Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

The announcer adds: "Hillary's right. John McCain for president."

The 30-second spot was running in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin as well as in Denver.

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Obama pushes economics on road to Denver

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Barack Obama renewed his emphasis on economic themes Tuesday, pledging to enforce occupational health and safety regulations as president and declaring that Republican rival John McCain "doesn't get it" when it comes to the anxieties that many middle-class workers are facing.

The Illinois senator was wending his way westward through a handful of battleground states before arriving in Denver to accept his party's presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention. In Missouri, Obama spoke to workers at a giant hangar where American Airlines planes are serviced. The plant employed 3,500 people in 2001, but the work force has since been cut to about 1,000.

The Illinois senator has kept a relatively light public schedule this week, not wishing to distract from the carefully scripted program unfolding in Denver.

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GOP base exerts influence on platform

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Republicans on Tuesday debated election principles influenced by their conservative base as well as by presidential candidate John McCain.

They were taking a tough line on abortion and immigration while weighing an energy policy that would acknowledge — if grudgingly — the human imprint on climate change.

Nothing written into the platform will tie McCain's hands in the campaign and it was questionable whether he'd pay much attention to it. Presidential candidates often don't.

But the two days of platform hearings were focusing the party on a review of what it stands for and exposing familiar divisions between conservative and moderate elements.

The 112-member platform committee opened meetings with a draft document about half as long as the swollen 2004 platform, and party officials were determined to keep it relatively succinct despite the amendments to come.

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Clinton steers clear of convention drama

DENVER (AP) — Former President Clinton said the presidential campaign had been "endlessly fascinating," and predicted Tuesday that it still has a few plot twists yet ahead.

Clinton said nothing about his wife's plan later in the day to formally cede the nomination to Barack Obama, or the maneuvering over counting delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

Clinton's above-the-fray speech on democracy and grand issues like global warming skirted the political drama simmering a half-mile away at the Democratic convention.

Eager to avoid charges of hogging Barack Obama's spotlight, Clinton gave a largely academic address to open a panel on democracy made up of nine fellow members of the ex-leaders club from such countries as Yemen, Canada and Peru. There were hundreds in the polyglot audience, most of them looking more like diplomats than political partisans.

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Biden delivers mea culpa to home-state delegates

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday thanked Delaware delegates for standing by their home-state senator and served up a mea culpa for his foibles and imperfections.

Biden, known for an unscripted style that sometimes gets him into trouble, told a small breakfast gathering that he couldn't have weathered personal failures without their help, and allowed that his spot on the ticket will come with challenges, drawing knowing laughter from the crowd.

"It's all out there, in the clear public view," Biden said. "I didn't always comport myself in the way that I wanted to."

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McCain defends support of war, US role in world

PHOENIX (AP) — Republican candidate John McCain on Tuesday defended his staunch backing for the war in Iraq as well as an aggressive role for the U.S. around the world.

McCain told military veterans in Phoenix that he welcomes a debate on those topics as the fall campaign unfolds.

"America must stand firmly on the side of freedom and justice," McCain told a convention of the American Legion, a friendly audience for the former prisoner of war.

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DAILY TRACK

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are running about even — McCain has 46 percent to Obama's 44 percent — among registered voters in the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll daily tracking update.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama met with voters in Kansas City, Mo.

Joe Biden attends events at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain addressed the American Legion National Convention in Phoenix.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I've never been a team. I should've been a one-man band." — Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, noting how he's not used to playing a supporting role.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

The Pepsi Center seats 20,000 in its enclosed arena.

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Compiled by Ann Sanner.

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