- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO
- Fed Reform? Not So Fast.
- Oil Next Week: What Traders Will Be Watching
- Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Reports New Citi Stake
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Court Rejects 'Clawbacks' for Alleged Stanford Victims
- Tax Credit Sparking First-Time Home Sales: Realtors
- Investors Cut Back US Stocks for Bigger Growth Abroad
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- White House Plans to Freeze Spending to Cut Deficit
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- Oil Next Week: What Traders Will Be Watching
MOST SHARED
- Seeking Innovation in Health Care
- Today's Market Action
- Driving Health Care Innovation
- Israel: Leader of Business Innovation
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Herbalife Vs. Hedge Funds
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Next Week’s Top IPO
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great
- Burned by Yahoo!, Disney and More
Text Size 
There were two emotional centerpieces in the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
And another big one comes tonight -- with big consequences for the success of the DNC gathering in Denver.
The most dramatic moment Monday night came with the rousing speech by Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who traveled here despite suffering from brain cancer.
That galvanized delegates, for whom the Kennedy name still represents the gold standard in Democratic politics. And it helped Barack Obama, by shifting attention away from the backstage drama between his allies and those of Hillary Clinton, and toward the party's enduring ideals.
But perhaps more important for Obama was the speech by his wife Michelle. Her task was make to swing voters -- especially whites with some reservations about supporting the first African-American nominee -- more comfortable with the idea that Obama understands their lives and shares their values.
She did it by invoking the special moments that so many families can relate to: the birth of a child, the illness of a parent, the whispered nighttime conversations between siblings, the excitement of Christmas morning.
Obama himself, appearing live on video with a white family from Missouri, punctuated the point by exchanging "I love you's" with his young daughters, after they joined their mother on stage.
By praising Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama also took a first step in the campaign's attempt to unite the party more fully. Tonight, the attention shifts to Hillary Clinton and how effectively her prime-time speech calls on supporters to rally around Obama -- and surrender their lingering sense of grievance over her primary defeat.
Questions? Comments? Write to .
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
- A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes