Welcome to this blog's new home. I'll post here briefly on Saturday morning (US time), before boarding a plane from Washington to Denver for the Democratic convention. As soon as we take off, Barack Obama will announce his vice-presidential pick; it'll be a stunningly unexpected surprise choice, and there will be an enormous amount of excitement, and the candidate and his running-mate will make a sensational joint appearance in Springfield, Illinois, but I will miss all this because I will be out of cellphone contact, eating mini-pretzels from a bag.
I'll be blogging here during the conventions, and liveblogging the big speeches: join me and together we can count the number of times Obama says "change" and John McCain says "Czechoslovakia". I'll also be writing a morning email briefing from Denver and Minneapolis-St Paul with the latest news from the conventions, plus details of features, interviews and analysis from the Guardian's unrivalled team of reporters and commentators, and a roundup of the best of the blogosphere and the US media. Get it sent to your inbox each weekday morning by signing up here.
