Republicans, Democrats View Conventions Differently

... Just wanted to follow-up on my earlier post regarding regarding President Bush's decision to speak tonight. In general, it seems his decision to speak goes against the GOP philosophy regarding how to handle conventions.

Democrats tend to view their conventions with the delegates in mind. As such, they tend to focus on putting speakers on stage (like Kennedy, Pelosi, et al.) who might throw red meat and fire up the folks in the hall.

Republicans, on the other hand, tend to be more pragmatic about this whole convention thing. They, instead, view it as more of a media opportunity, and thus, the audience is (let's face it) a "prop." As such, the immediate audience isn't the real audience -- the people

In jettisoning this unpopular president -- and less popular VP -- McCain seemingly got a leg up. Tonight's video might be a slight step backward, but in my estimation, he's still better off than he might have been.,