We’re likely to tune out the conventions
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
One thing for sure about the upcoming political conventions, people will hardly bother to watch them on television. Oh, they might watch the acceptance speeches of the presidential candidates, for about an hour each. They might watch the vice presidential candidates speak — for about 45 minutes each.
But what else will there be to watch. We already will know who won. John McCain has the Republican nomination sewed up, and Barack Obama has the Democratic nomination in the bag.
They are going around the country talking about how they are going to govern, activity that in the past has been reserved for the time period that follows the conventions and precedes the election.
Barack Obama is even visiting foreign countries, as if he already were president, traveling to avoid a showdown on some thorny domestic debate.
For his part, McCain is flying around the country looking for crowds to talk to, giving about the same speeches he gave when he was running in the primaries.
Obama plans to give his acceptance speech in Denver’s Mile High Stadium, since the convention hall can’t hold the adoring crowds. Maybe he should give it in Germany, where the people don’t seem to mind standing in the streets to listen to him.
But the business of the conventions will be an afterthought, as far as television is concerned. The platform committees, for example, are about as fascinating as watching grass grow next to a house where the paint is drying — at least as far as television is concerned.
Conventions used to be full of political intrigue before the primary age. People in smoke-filled rooms made weighty decisions. Now, smoking is banned. We know who won. Bring on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
