Blending change, comfort

DENVER

Democrats open their national convention today amid troubling news. Several recent polls show presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain now in a dead heat.

Maybe these polls are just a blip, but Obama lost his lead as the economy and conflict in Georgia racheted up people’s worries.

His newness — which made him such an attractive candidate during the primaries — also left Obama as something of a blank canvas on which McCain’s ads painted a worldwide celebrity, a lightweight
with dubious credentials as a leader.

Tonight, Democrats will present their own portrait of Obama — with a goal of establishing a renewed comfort level with voters. Expect to hear that Barack Obama understands the problems of ordinary
Americans and has solutions.

There’s nothing earth-shattering about this, of course. National political conventions typically reintroduce the presidential nominee to rev up the faithful and jump start the fall campaign. But in Denver this
week, Democrats also need to stop the erosion of support. They need to find the right blend of change and comfort.

Meet Barack Obama, multicultural American.

Obama’s wife, Michelle, is tonight’s headliner. She’ll talk about the values and experiences that shaped her husband and — this is key — how they would equip him in the White House to go to work on
behalf of people who are struggling to keep their one house.

Her brother, Craig Robinson, head basketball coach at Oregon State University, will introduce her.

Viewers will also meet Obama’s half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is nine years younger. After Obama’s mother divorced Barack’s Kenyan father, she married an Indonesian. Maya Soetoro-Ng is their
daughter. Maya has said people usually think she’s a Latina, so she learned Spanish. She teaches in Hawaii.

The night’s theme is “One Nation,” but it could be “We are Family,” the 1979 Sister Sledge dance song that energized the 2004 Democratic convention.

Only a few months ago, Obama’s unique background and air of mystery were pluses over the white-bread presidential candidates.

Primary voters were drawn to the guy who conceded he had a funny name and didn’t look like the presidents on the bills. But novelty has a shelf life, especially in politics.

It’s nice if Europeans like him, but people want to know what the next president will do for the folks at home.

After his world tour and Hawaii vacation, Obama spent the days leading up to the convention focused on the economy.

In Virginia, he insisted he wasn’t too liberal for the Old Dominion. He told my colleague Olympia Meola of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in an interview, “I think people are looking for who’s going to fight
for them in the White House.”

Perhaps previewing a convention theme, he said, “And if they have confidence that I’m going to make their lives better, their children’s lives better, I don’t think they care whether I’m green, blue or polka
dot.”

That kind of focus could help Obama regain his footing this week and beyond.

The last thing Democrats want is a repeat of 20 years ago. In August 1988, Michael Dukakis triumphantly left the Democratic convention with a 17-point lead in the polls over George H.W. Bush.

What do you think? E-mail mmercer@mediageneral.com) or comment at www.mgwashington.com.