Other convention happenings

• Only a few hours before being officially named the Democratic presidential nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama arrived on his campaign plane in Denver. Although he was not expected to appear at the convention, he surprised the crowd by strolling onto stage after his vice-presidential running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, finished speaking.

• To maintain their post-convention boost, Obama and Biden, will do a whistle-stop tour through three key Midwestern states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, which also happen to all be swing states in the election.

• Convention organizers have scrapped a plan to have the 75,000 people attending Obama's speech Thursday spend the time before the speech — which they will have plenty of, since they will have to arrive hours early to clear security — conducting a giant phone bank. Because of fears that phone system could not handle the call volume, they are instead going to encourage people to text message their friends and family.

• A column of people three blocks long, led by members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, streamed from the Denver Coliseum on Wednesday in an anti-war protest march to the Pepsi Center, where the Democratic National Convention is being staged. As many as 50 soldiers wearing army fatigues led the noisy but peaceful protest into downtown and toward the Pepsi Center as police and bystanders watched. The protest followed a concert by Rage Against The Machine at the coliseum, which was attended by approximately 9,000 people. Despite fears (or maybe hope) for arrests by protesters, some of whom had their lawyers numbers painted on them, the march was never out of control.