convention chatter, first day
 
Like traditional societies that begin political councils by reciting their history and the names of their ancestors, the Democrats begin with evocations of their past, relating it to the theme of the future.
 
Quotes resound through the hall from Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy.  The first featured speakers were Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  
  
An early refrain, that could be a slogan: We can do better.
"voices of HMOs and Halliburtons."
 
Al Gore looked relaxed, perfecting his deadpan delivery of jokes on himself.
"You win some, you lose some, and then there's that little known 3rd category."
Tones down his rhetoric, but gets in a few zingers:
  "Let's make sure the Supreme Court doesn't pick the next president, and this president isn't the one picking the next Supreme Court."
The key to his relaxation?  Among the few people he thanks is Bill Clinton, as he associates himself again--- as well as the Democrats---with an administration of peace and prosperity, jobs and budget surpluses. 
He accuses Bush of ignoring "the climate crisis."  An interesting article advocating that politicans use this phrase can be found here:  
 
Jimmy Carter, showing both his kindly and stern sides, praises Kerry's military service in the context of past presidents who saw the horrors of war and therefore sought peace, like Eisenhower and Kennedy.  Says in this election, nothing less than America's soul is at stake.
 
A speaker concentrates on the health care crisis; a showcase for the nine Democratic women U.S. Senators; Representative Bob Menendez discusses foreign policy towards Latin America in Spanish, and possibly the most powerful moment: one of the crew on Kerry's Vietnam "fast boat"--a black man now a minister---describes exactly what Kerry did and under what conditions to get his medals and purple hearts, in one case by returning under fire to personally pull a shipmate out of the water.
 
Several people---a couple of steelworkers, a Latina, a college student---address the convention from remote locations in Ohio, Wisconsin, CA.  Several taped presentations: one the story of an infant with severe respiratory problems whose parents ran into difficulties which Kerry and his Senate office solved so the boy could receive care at home; another the story of Kerry championing a Massachusetts little league team for disabled kids, that blossomed into a national movement.  Both highlight an often forgotten feature of political office-holders: their services to constituents, to individuals and families that make real differences in their lives, sometimes small but sometimes quite large.
 
Now in prime time, Glenn Close uses her star power to keep the TV attention on the podium for a powerful presentation on 9-11 that is emotional and pointed, without in itself being political.  But it sets a theme---how we were united as a nation and as a world on Sept. 12, both as a model for how things could be and ought to be, and as an example of what the Bushies squandered.
 
Hillary Clinton in a yellow pants suit, jokes upon her reception: I'm almost speechless, a reference to the fact that she was a last minute addition, by popular demand.  She delivers a strong and tough ten minutes, emphasizing that John Kerry is a serious man for serious times.
 
Bill Clinton in a trim black suit with silvery tie, delivers a polished speech for which he had a lot of practice, as it uses themes he's honed on the speaker and book signing circuits.  He makes the case very well, and sets a high standard for following nights.  His zinger, which dovetails nicely with Hillary's speech: " Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."               
 
 
    
Style notes
Is this the first political convention to be run by a multimedia DJ?  Video quotes and short films, and a mix of recorded and live music.  Today heavy on the Motown sound: We Are Family, Dancing in the Street, What's Going On?, Bebe Winans version of the national anthem (Al Gore said it was the best he ever heard, and in our more limited experience we agree), the much-maligned "singing stewardesses" version of Proud Mary done by professional singers, and the night capped by Patti Labelle, a change is gonna come...   The first---but not the last---airing of Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, and Bill Clinton greeted by Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. 
 
The format did look like the Oscars or Emmys, and apparently it's organized by a producer who did the Emmys on TV.

One of the short films, early on, about the Democratic party used those stylish quick shots of cameras focusing or jerking past the picture.  It reminds us of the style a few years ago for typography:when for the first time word processors gave everyone the ability to use all kinds of professional looking print fonts and produce error-free copy, it became fashionable to use word processors to create ragged lines with mistakes that looked like the work of dirty typewriter keys.  Now that all kinds of video effects and editing are available to pretty much everyone, the fashion is to turn what used to be seen only as amateurish mistakes (camera in the act of zooming or getting the subject in frame) into high style.