Obama announces post-convention swing state tour

DENVER –Barack Obama and running mate Joseph Biden will launch a battleground-state bus tour after the Democratic convention closes here Friday. 

The “On the Road to Change” tour will bring the Democratic ticket to swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, underscoring their importance to Sen. Obama (Ill.).

{mosads}The two candidates will travel with their spouses and stop first in Pennsylvania, where Sen. Biden (Del.) was born.

In 2004, Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) and his running mate, former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), launched a similar tour. They left their convention in Boston on a bus tour that took them to Pennsylvania.

The Obama campaign will be looking to seize on whatever momentum the Illinois senator is able to generate with his nomination acceptance speech Thursday night in front of more than 75,000 people.

The challenge for the campaign is sustaining any such momentum as Republican rival Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is widely expected to announce his running mate Friday, which would likely dominate media coverage. McCain is then to launch a swing state tour of his own before heading to the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The Republican convention starts Monday, when President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are scheduled to speak.