Clinton nominates Obama as presidential candidate

‘I want a man who believes with no doubt that we can build a new American Dream economy’:

US: Bill Clinton formally nominated Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate Wednesday, saying he was cool on the outside but “burns for America” inside.

“I want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States and I proudly nominate him to the standard bearer of the Democratic Party,” Clinton said.

“I want a man who believes with no doubt that we can build a new American Dream economy,” Clinton said in a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“After last night, I want a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama,” Clinton joked, drawing cheers and smiles from the First Lady watching from a box the night after her own rousing convention speech.

While President Barack Obama will be hard- pressed to defend his economic record in a series of debates next month, rival Mitt Romney faces an equally tricky task: presenting a better alternative to US voters.

Romney and close aides are spending three days this week hunkered down in Vermont practicing for the all-important face-offs, while Obama basks in the glow of party faithful at the convention where Democrats will nominate him for re-election.

After that it will be a maddening two-month dash to November 6, and while both men will be campaigning virtually non-stop, the three debates will be the best opportunity for voters to see the candidates square off on the issues.

Both Obama and Romney are intellectuals who embrace cool-headed reason over spontaneity, and the shoot-from-the-hip atmosphere of some previous debates might be lacking come October.

But even as the winner in US presidential debates is often seen as the one who does not utter something that ends up in an opponent's campaign ad, that doesn't mean sparks won't fly, experts said.

“For Romney, what he needs to do in these debates, especially the first one, is to demonstrate in some sense that he's ready to be president and get people comfortable with the idea of a President Romney,” John Geer, political science professor at Vanderbilt University, told AFP.

In terms of recent experience, Romney is more battle-tested, having participated in some 20 Republican debates since late last year. Obama, on the other hand, has not debated a presidential candidate since October 2008, when he squared off against Republican John McCain -- although one could argue that a president engages in constant debate with Congress and world leaders.

While Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and one-time private equity investor, was forced to parse his positions down to the last detail in debates with Republican rivals, he will no doubt make his case in October that “you aren't better off than four years ago, and I'm going to make you better off,” Geer added.Obama will have to counter that Romney would want to take America back to old policies that have been proven to fail, and that sticking with the president is a safer bet for middle-class voters. AFP