Kennedys deliver family values

Dynastic liberals plead for gun control and health care

Special report: the US elections
The Democrats have been trying hard recently to represent themselves as the party of family values, so what better way to illustrate the point than to have two members of the same family issue the rallying call for action?

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the daughter of the man who was nominated in the same city 40 years ago, and Ted Kennedy, the late president's brother and now the patriarch of America's best-known political family, both won standing ovations.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, making a rare political appearance, used the occasion to paint some of the ways in which the Democrats can distinguish themselves from what the Republicans are offering the country, most specifically on gun control.

"I thank all Americans for making me and John and all of our family a part of your families, for reaching out and sustaining us through the good times and the difficult ones and for helping us to dream our father's dreams," she told the delegates.

She said that, as she and her brother were growing up, hardly a day had gone by without someone telling them how their father had drawn them into public service. Among their number, she said, was Joseph Lieberman, the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate. "Now it is our turn to prove that the New Frontier was not a place in time but a timeless call," she said.

She also became one of the few main speakers to raise the delicate issue of gun control, which is seen, along with abortion and health care, as one of the key grounds of difference between the two parties.

"If we believe that we have seen enough gun violence in our land and in our lifetimes, that guns should no longer take the lives of those we love" - said the woman whose father was assassinated in 1963 and whose uncle Robert was shot dead in 1968 not far from the spot where she was speaking after he had won the party's primary - "then it is up to us. It is up to us to elect Al Gore and Joe Lieberman."

Introduced by his niece with an affectionate tribute and a hug, Ted Kennedy went through his paces like someone who has been best man at enough weddings to make the necessary speech without stretching himself too far.

The days when he dreamed that he might have been the person saying Al Gore's lines may be long gone but the old political instincts clearly remain intact.

He chose to highlight the "life and death issue" of health care, promoting Mr Gore as "the only candidate committed to moving this country forward step by step, starting with covering every child by the year 2004".

Earlier the Rev Jesse Jackson became one of the few platform speakers to look immediately outward when he told delegates that they should embrace the protesters who have been camped, as it were, at the gate of the citadel since the convention started.

The enormously heavy police presence, which sometimes makes the city look as though it is experiencing a coup d'etat rather than a democratic convention, has meant that many delegates bussed in from nearby hotels are unaware of the thousands of protesters raising issues which they claim are ignored inside the Staples Centre.

Yesterday 45 animal rights protesters were arrested after a protest outside a fur shop.

A further 30 protesters were arrested as the American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would be suing the Los Angeles police department for its action against demonstrators at the end of a rally and concert on Monday night.

A legal observer who was video-taping an arrest was also arrested on a conspiracy charge.

There was another voice from the past, too, albeit the more recent past. Bill Bradley, the unsuccessful candidate who was beaten by Mr Gore in the primaries, made a rueful but supportive speech.

He, too, played on the theme that the Democrats alone truly reflected the nation's diversity.

"We don't declare ourselves compassionate, we've been acting compassionately for decades," he said. We don't just talk about prosperity, we make it happen."

Democratic party pieces

Ghost from the past
Oliver North broadcasting for a radio station from the convention centre

Conscience of the convention
Senator Russell Feingold: "I cannot stand before you without mentioning my concern and dismay that soft money fundraising [backdoor election funding] has become so much a part of this convention"

Number of donors who have given the party $100,000 or more

Most in need of either soft or hard money
Thirty cycling protesters from Critical Mass arrested downtown and held on $20,000 bail for unspecified offences

Pacific Bell reported that use of the mobile phone around the convention centre increased by 242% on the first day. AT&T handled 10m minutes of calls on the first day

Threat of the day
"I'm a peaceful demonstrator. If I'm harassed, I'll sue your ass off" - protester's badge

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