Opening night to bring Kennedy, Michelle Obama

DENVER -- The Democratic National Convention opens Monday night with an emotional and surprising appearance by ailing Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, a fixture at the quadrennial gatherings for 40 years who nearly missed the event because of his treatment for brain cancer.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama, confirmed Monday that Kennedy was in Denver and said he would attend the convention.

Kennedy's arrival in the city was announced Monday morning at the Massachusetts delegation's breakfast at their hotel by state party officials, according to delegates who were there, including Gus Bickford.

"I'm getting chills just thinking about it now talking to you," Bickford said. "Everybody will be on their feet when he comes out on the stage."

Party officials already had planned to honor Kennedy with an eight-minute video by documentary filmmakers Ken Burns and Mark Herzog, and with a speech by his niece, Caroline Kennedy. Burton said there were no plans for the senator to address the convention.

Behind the scenes, Obama's representatives worked with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's camp on a deal to give her some votes in the roll call for the nomination — but to then quickly end the process in a show of unanimous acclamation for Obama.

Some hard feelings remained. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., acknowledged that Democrats "had not yet achieved the complete reconciliation that we need."

The featured speaker Monday is scheduled to be Michelle Obama, who will be introduced by her brother, Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson. The schedule also includes former Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, a Republican moderate who broke ranks with his party this month and endorsed Obama.

The convention opens as a new poll shows a formidable challenge facing Democrats. Fewer than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters in the presidential primaries say they definitely will vote for Obama in November, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

In the survey, taken Thursday through Saturday, 47% of Clinton supporters say they are solidly behind Obama, and 23% say they support him but may change their minds before the election.