The first night of the convention was a success for the Democrats. The red-meat issues that the activists in attendance eat up--abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action, etc.--were almost entirely absent. Instead, a steady stream of speakers attacked the Bush record and created an image of John Kerry as a navy captain ready to steer the ship of state.

Among the minor leaguers, condescending Tammy Baldwin appeared to be speaking to school children and Barbara Mikulski stumbled over her words with the eloquence of an overworked truck driver on nodoz. Public speaking clearly isn't foreign to the Reverend David Alston, who pumped up the crowd. The major leaguers get graded on a more competitive scale. Jimmy Carter came across as bitter and mean spirited, Al Gore appeared more comfortable than I remember him, and Hillary Clinton's address was rather pedestrian.

President Clinton's speech clearly stands as the highlight of day one. He received a rock star's greeting, and supplied the line of the night in his assault on the Bush Administration: "Strength and wisdom are not opposing values." Like all conventioneers, the delegates embarrassed themselves by wearing silly hats and dancing horribly to stale songs. But you didn't see rainbow flags, pro-abortion placards, or anything else that screamed "radical."

Let's see if they can keep up the act for another three days.

I watch the speeches on c-span because c-span seems not to be particularly agenda driven in the footage they shoot live. That is good because they pan in on the crowd with unbiased intent (a good amount) and you get to see some of people that CNN and the networks won't show: The true believers, the circus freaks, the total has-beens, people who seem way too happy, people who are living in the 60's and are still holding onto the dream and lastly, those who still think Ted Kennedy is a standup guy. From what I saw last night there's no way these people will be able to control themselves for more than 42 hours.