Democratic Convention - Day 1

Deliberate setup of a successful Convention or wasted time?

It depends upon whether or not you are in the media.

There were lots of comments yesterday that there was nary a vicious attack on McCain, Republicans or George Bush. Where was the venom? Where was the blood and guts and savagery? However, the overwhelming majority of these opinions were coming from the media (actually, every one I saw was from the media, but I assume somewhere out there someone else must have opined similarly). If there isn't death or destruction, it isn't exciting news and this is the Political Newsfolks SuperBowl. Kind of like a great NFL defensive battle being viewed by fans of Arena Football.

High point of this hilarity - CNN doing a round robin of complaining about there not being any attacks on the 1st night talking over Senator Claire McCaskill of MO who spoke about McCain being out of touch with average voters. Errr, folks, shut up and maybe you'll hear something.

Despite arguably one of the most effective records of creating change in the Senate, Ted Kennedy has been a caricature of himself for most of his political career. However, his presence and talk after a video intro was striking and compelling and you plain have to give the guy credit for still having enough steam in his engine to make people listen and understand.

Michelle Obama's talk was a good indication that she knows how to communicate a message without sounding shrink-wrapped like many politicians. Nice intro with her mom narrating. Loved the kids with the open Mic with dad on the big screen. Were you also wondering what was going to come out of their mouths next? Most excitement of the evening. Ten year old Malia actually gave dad a chance to correct himself nicely on where he was speaking from.

Tip to the "best political team on television" (bet you haven't heard that before):

Have a glass of wine before you go on the air and mellow out a bit. If they were savagely attacking for 4 days, people would be turned off before Thursday. The good stuff will come, but not everyone wants to see people tearing each other apart. Weren't we at least hoping that with 2 standup candidates like Obama and McCain we could see at least some actual discussion on positives and moving forward rather than winning by not falling as far as the other candidate?