The Delegates

From the expectations-management department, the general consensus is that Obama will focus on nuts-and-bolts economic issues:

• Politico says that Obama has been studying three acceptance speeches in particular: John Kennedy’s from 1960, Ronald Reagan’s from 1980, and Bill Clinton’s from 1992.
• The New York Times says that the speech will be “workmanlike” and evoke memories of Katrina with references to Hurricane Gustav.
• The Los Angeles Times says that the speech will “be less about the historic nature of his achievement than about his plans”, and quotes Obama communications director Robert Gibbs that the speech will be talk to American “about the pain that they feel in their lives and what we can do to bring jobs back to this country”.
• The Washington Post reports that “many top Democrats, pundits and union officials here this week telling him that he needs to sharpen his message with a tougher line against McCain and a more nitty-gritty appeal on the economy”.
• The Guardian goes into detail on what kind of economic proposals that Obama will be making:
  

  He is to outline tax plans to provide relief for those hardest hit by the economic downturn and to address inequality. He is planning to change the tax code so that families making more than $250,000 (£136,000) will pay more while everyone else pays less. This would be accompanied by moves to create jobs and tackle global warming through investment in alternative energy and the rebuilding of the US’s long-ignored physical infrastructure.

• The Times of London has some juicy sniping from disgruntled Clinton “confidant” who didn’t get the party-unity memo:

“His people do not talk to us or seek our advice. Obama should win as default Democrat in a Democratic year. But his polling is still behind that of the party and if he prevails it will be despite, rather than because, of his campaign. I think the Republicans will rip his flesh off next week, that is what they do. Obama is a novice who has never run against a white male Republican.”