Dismissed in advance by many as a politically empty, over-choreographed, made-for-TV non-event, the Democratic National Convention opening Monday will still play a crucial role for presidential aspirant John Kerry.
“When Kerry gives his speech on Thursday accepting the party’s presidential nomination, it will be the only time in the campaign he will have the uncontested attention of the country,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
It has been decades since any real political business has been transacted at a convention and the main TV networks have cut back coverage of the four-day gathering to three hours.
Though carefully selected speakers will troop to the platform for a series of 10-minute, pre-approved orations each evening, most will be speaking to small cable television audience.
Just the speeches, please
In Boston, the national networks will basically cover only the speeches of former President Bill Clinton Monday, vice presidential nominee John Edwards Wednesday and Kerry’s speech Thursday, preceded by a short movie introducing the candidate to an electorate.
“It is Kerry’s chance to deliver a speech that presents him as a viable alternative to President George W. Bush. It will be one of the central events of his political career,” said political scientist Joel Goldstein of St. Louis University.
Despite the fact that viewership has been falling over recent presidential campaigns, the convention is one of a diminishing number of events together with the Superbowl and the end of well-loved, long-running TV series that Americans experience collectively as a nation.
A Marist College poll last week found that 65 percent of the electorate planned to tune into at least part of the convention. Even for those who do not watch, the key moments are distilled, interpreted and replayed in other forms, in sound bites, on the Internet and, equally importantly, by late night comics and satirical shows like “Saturday Night Live.”
'Still commands attention'
“Certain speeches and vignettes from conventions are remembered years later. It provides a stage that still commands attention,” said Goldstein.
Clinton’s 1992 video, “The Man from Hope,” followed by his speech certainly transformed the way many voters looked at him and paved the way for his election victory. Four years ago, Bush delivered a serious and substantive speech at the Republican National Convention that dispelled doubts that he was a lightweight.
Still, four days of nonstop speeches -- 24 hours in all at a cost of at least $55 million, not including the costs of providing security -- seems a lot of money to spend and trouble to take for the benefit of a couple of hours of public attention.
“Between roughly 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. each day, the delegates, candidates and officials will be busy with the proceedings of the convention itself,” wrote Edward Cafasso, senior vice president of Morrissey and Co., a Boston public relations firm.
“At other times, however, everyone involved will be in search of free food, free booze, free stuff, interesting events, news, shopping, souvenirs, sleep, gossip or sights to see,” he wrote on the company Web site in a guide to PR strategies and opportunities at the convention.
