Obama's Denver checklist

DENVER -- Remember all the heavy breathing earlier this year about the Democratic convention? How this was going to be the first brokered convention in recent memory?

Remember how the choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could come down to the so-called superdelegates? How former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards might play a pivotal role with his small number of delegates?

Or how a deadlocked convention might turn to Al Gore?

Now it looks as if the only heavy breathing will be convention-goers gasping for air in the Mile High City.

That is not to say that conventions are irrelevant bloviation-athons where every Democratic officeholder and Democratic-leaning special interest group gets a few minutes on the podium to talk to hundreds of political junkies watching on C-Span.

(No North Carolinian is on the speaker list. John and Elizabeth Edwards would have been speaking, but you know the rest of that story.)

Conventions still matter as national megaphones, however. This is one of those moments when candidates have the nation's attention.

Given that, here is Obama's checklist of things to do this week:

1. CONVINCE MIDDLE AMERICA THAT HE IS ONE OF THEM. Obama grew up partly in Hawaii and Indonesia, has an unusual ethnic name and went to Harvard. And then there is his race. Obama has not closed the deal with a lot of swing voters he needs -- mainly Reagan Democrats, white working people, white Catholics and white rural people. People like to get a handle on a candidate -- Georgia peanut farmer (Jimmy Carter), Missouri haberdasher (Harry Truman), Minnesota pharmacist (Hubert Humphrey).

"For Democrats, it's important that they frame the public understanding of Obama favorably and make it stick in the minds of the public," said Andy Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University. "Obama is a newcomer, kind of a work in progress. There is some unease among a lot of swing voters. They need to introduce Obama and produce a simple, compelling narrative that sticks in the minds of the public."

2. MAKE PEACE WITH CLINTON. This was a long, grueling Democratic primary fight. Many Democrats were certain that the stars were aligned for the first woman president, and there is still major disappointment. Obama is likely to do everything he can, short of singing "New York, New York," to patch things up. He is giving prominent speaking opportunities to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton's name will be placed in nomination.

3. WITH THE NATION STILL AT WAR, OBAMA MUST MAKE VOTERS SEE HIM AS A CREDIBLE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. The major weakness of Democrats has been national security. Even Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, had difficulty overcoming it. Remember the 2004 convention, where Kerry saluted and said he was "reporting for duty"?

4. SHOW SOME SEASONING. Four years ago, Obama was an Illinois state senator who was running for the U.S. Senate. Obama has often been called Kennedyesque. Like Kennedy, though, Obama must convince voters he is wise beyond his years.

5. RAISE DOUBTS ABOUT SEN. JOHN McCAIN -- tying him to the unpopular Bush administration and to an unpopular war in Iraq. Convince voters that McCain is disconnected from the middle class. Perhaps raise issues about his age.

Next week, we'll look at McCain's checklist.