Virginia Governor Mark Warner noted that he became the first-ever member of his family to graduate from college – before his own career at Harvard Law, and as a cell phone entrepreneur earning literally hundreds of millions of dollars.

Unfortunately, none of these convention speakers took the opportunity to remind their national TV audience that middle class and working class Americans could still replicate such impressive achievements – even after eight years of Bush.

Rather than encouraging the public to pursue timely dreams and apply timeless values with full confidence of success, the Denver Dems seemed to say that we made it, but you can’t --- unless you elect us and we provide government help.

Amazingly enough, in recounting their own stories of advancement and achievement, none of the speakers cited bureaucratic intervention or federal assistance as an element of success. Instead, they repeatedly invoked strong personal values – strong families, self-discipline, tireless effort, sacrifice – as the sole key to economic and educational progress.

If those values worked for the top Democrats themselves, why can’t they work for Americans everywhere?

By implication, these smug and preening politicians suggested that we’re brilliant and strong and special enough to make it to the top without government help, but most of the mere mortals who are watching us on TV will get nowhere at all unless we somehow use taxpayer money to assist them.

As to the claim that recent Republican misrule somehow put an end to the opportunities that middle-aged politicians enjoyed during the golden “Camelot” era of their youth, it’s worth remembering that the GOP has controlled the White House for 36 of the last 48 years. Michelle Obama, for instance, has lived the greater part of her 44 years on planet earth under Republican Presidents and, even more disproportionately, under Republican Governors of Illinois (30 out of 44).

The contradictions emanating from the Democratic convention—praising individual stories of opportunity and upward mobility, while decrying the general disappearance of opportunity and mobility-- actually mirror the most puzzling anomaly of recent public opinion polling. By overwhelming majorities, Americans describe the state of the country as dire and desperate, while similarly lopsided majorities rate their own status as successful, satisfying and optimistic.

Most citizens feel fortunate and confident and pleased with their lives, even while media alarmists and complaints from politicians have convinced them that the nation at large teeters on the verge of collapse and destruction. In other words, most of us know from our own experience that we’re doing well and moving ahead, but we’re illogically convinced that we’re exceptional in that regard.

In the same sense, the TV extravaganza from Denver asserts again and again that the Democratic Party is comprised of strivers and dreamers who’ve overcome all obstacles, working their way up from nothing to enjoy the most lavish blessings our society can bestow. At the same time that we thrill to these all-American stories, we’re reminded that we can never consider them representative or the nation at large.

In fact, the paragons on parade in the Pepsi Center – very much including both Obama and Biden—are, presumably, so unique in their history of unassisted self-improvement that we’re meant to conclude that they’re the only ones in the country ultimately fit to lead.