Dems rip into McCain at Obama's convention

DENVER - Democrats ripped into John McCain as indifferent to the plight of the working class and an ally of big oil on Tuesday, launching wave after wave of attacks from the podium of their national convention.

"If he's the answer, then the question must be ridiculous," New York Gov. David Paterson said of the Republican presidential candidate.

By contrast, said party elder Ted Sorensen, "we have the man we need at last to embrace the future, not the past, and to dispel eight years of pain and shame. Barack Obama is his name. Call the roll!"

Not yet.

Obama's formal nomination was set for Wednesday night. First came Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in a riveting battle for the nomination, who was closing out her own history-making quest for the White House.

Despite lingering unhappiness among some delegates nursing grievances over Clinton's loss, party chairman Howard Dean declared the convention determined to make Obama the nation's first black president. "There is not a unity problem. If anyone doubts that, wait till you see Hillary Clinton's speech," he said.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner was tapped to deliver the keynote address on the convention's second night. It was the same assignment that Obama - then an Illinois state lawmaker running for the Senate - used four years ago to launch his astonishing ascent in national politics.