I didn't watch a minute of cenvention coverage until last night ~ recovering from Olympics-induced square-eyeball syndrome.

I watched the PBS coverage, which was tolerable, and I thought most of the preliiminary speakers were pretty lame, with the notable and obvious exception of Ex-Prez Bill and, to a much lesser extent, the wooden-but-competant John Kerry.

It occurred to me that it may have been a deliberate attempt to set Biden up to be impressive by contrast. If so, it worked ~ he was pretty damn impressive!

The conventions no longer serve the purpose of actually determining the nominees; that's done through the primary process these days. So they become show-biz. But they still serve a purpose, I suppose. I think the ongoing Dem-fest is actually working to unite and energize a still-fragmented constituency, and may not be as useless as it seems at first glance.