Denver, Aug. 29 : The New York Times said on Friday said the Democratic National Convention has finally given nominee Barack Obama the boost he needed to surpass John McCain in national surveys this week.

Quoting from the latest Gallup Poll, the paper said that it showed Obama leading McCain by 48 to 42 percent.

Denver, Aug 29 : Former US President Jimmy Carter has called Republican presidential candidate John McCain a “distinguished naval officer,” but said the Arizona senator has been “milking every possible drop of advantage” from his time served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Carter said he was bewildered by McCain’s performance at the Saddleback Presidential Forum hosted by pastor and author Rick Warren in Lake Forest, Calif., earlier this month.

Denver, Aug 29 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign has brushed aside questions about its standing among traditional Democrats, saying it would win the presidential election by bringing new voters “particularly young people, blacks, Hispanics, and Independents” to the polls in November.

There are millions more Democrats today than when this process started and that’s going to be beneficial to us in November, said campaign’s chief strategist David Axelrod.

Denver, Colorado  - Barack Obama is to accept the Democratic nomination for the presidency in a speech later Thursday, when he is expected to chart his plans for improving the weak economy and restoring the country's international standing.

Obama is the first African-American presidential nominee from a major party and his speech comes on the 45th anniversary of one of the most famous civil rights events in the country's history - Martin Luther King Jr's 1963 I Have A Dream speech.

Denver, Aug. 28 : Republican John McCain''s campaign has mocked the massive neoclassical set created for Democrat rival Obama''s speech at 75,000-seat Invesco Field here.

Some Republicans have dubbed it the "Barackopolis," while others suggested the delegates should wear togas to fit in among the same Doric columns the ancient Greeks believed would stroke the egos of Zeus and Athena.

"It''s only appropriate that Barack Obama would descend down from the heavens and spend a little time with us mere mortals when accepting the Democratic nomination," said Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz.

Denver, Aug. 28 : Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has insisted that he does not want to dazzle a TV audience estimated to be in the tens of millions with “a bunch of a high-flying rhetoric”, but instead, intends to focus on the kitchen-table economic issues facing American voters.