Obama seeks to heal rift, detail policies

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama faces a challenge this week to try to heal a party rift, draw a sharp contrast between himself and Republican rival John McCain and back up his soaring oratory with specifics of what he would do if he wins the White House.

As Obama, 47, enters the Democratic party convention that will formally nominate him, he has yet to answer doubts among many Americans about where he would take the country if elected in November.

Democrats are confident the man who would be America's first black president is in a strong position to defeat Vietnam war hero McCain, who turns 72 next week.

Resentment lingers among Clinton backers three months after Clinton ended her campaign, driven in part by evidence that the Obama camp never seriously considered her as a candidate to be his vice-presidential running mate. Obama filled that position with veteran Delaware Senator Joe Biden.

Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton, laid out two goals for the convention.

"We want to make sure people know exactly who Senator Obama is and where he wants to take the country, and two, that voters know their choice in this election, between Barack Obama, who wants to fundamentally change the way business is done in Washington, and John McCain, who is just more of the same of what we have had over the course of the last eight years," he said. (Reuters)