Opening Night At The Democratic Convention: Two Thumbs Down

DETROIT -- "Your story is ready to be told. You stir emotion. Create applause. Message delivered!" This simple formula is what producers use to create opening night activities for the North American International Auto Show that takes place annually in the Motor City.

And how about the Democrats? What production-design formula did they use in 2008? No story. No engaging theme. No surprises.

Message delivered: "We don't know what we're doing."

CNN's Anderson Cooper told television viewers at 9 PM, "The first two hours went by without anyone delivering a focused message." He has a flair for understatement. Cooper filled the time talking on air with Wolf Blitzer and Gloria Borger about who knows what. Behind him, the jib camera almost did a 360 as it aimlessly swung back and forth across the Pepsi Center.

Were any exciting, new products introduced during opening night ceremonies? Do you consider John Kerry new? For two hours a reaction-shot camera was trained on Kerry, the senator who lost to George W. Bush in 2004. It's a mystery why producers thought the home audience would be interested in Kerry's reaction to anything.

Ted Kennedy's appearance on stage at 9:30 PM raised the energy level of the arena. The central metaphor in a video about Kennedy's life was his huge sailboat, which obviously cost more than my house. It seemed a little off message, considering the mortgage crisis.

Michelle Obama did a fantastic job delivering her speech. But what did she really say? What did any of the Democrats really say? Bush got a pass. The Iraq war got a pass. The economy got a pass. Unless the production design of this event changes -- and changes fast -- the Democratic National Convention is in danger of giving John McCain a bump in the polls.

Follow Diane Tucker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dianetucker

Comments

[Swerinjer]

03:32 PM on 08/26/2008

Yep. Despite the Hillary haters on the Carville thread the dems were unfocused. Last night was a waste. any moment that is not an attack is a waste of time. youll see what we mean during the repug convention.

[c64audio]

02:09 PM on 08/26/2008

Why bother complaining about what did or didn't happen until it's over and you know the whole picture? Or do you get three pages into mystery novels and start complaining that no one died yet?

[Fabienne]

01:28 PM on 08/26/2008

Though I did not watch all of the convention last night, I thought Jesse Jackson, Jr., Kennedy and Michelle Obama were terrific. Certainly the latter gave far and away the best speech I have ever heard a candidate's wife give at a convention. I'm not sure the blogosphere has added anything to political commentary except giving more space to pundits who need to find something, anything, to say whether it means anything or not.

[lisasolodwarren]

12:00 PM on 08/26/2008

You should have watched PBS. No adds, good commentary. Only place to watch. As for the first night being a bust, I totally disagree. The tone was set. This is not the time or place to make position points. Everyone but Michelle made it clear that four more years was more of the same. This was a chance to get to know the candidates and that was done very well. Keep watching. We have three more days. Good grief.

[AgeofReason]

10:49 AM on 08/26/2008

I watched news coverage for about an hour last night, and that was all I could take. MSNBC and CNN were both more concerned about creating a PUMA story (and if we lose, I'll blame those whiners) than letting us see the convention. (And CNN decided to give Bill Bennett a lot of time to crow about McCain, I guess in response to the Fox ad.) So I Tivo'ed it. I don't care what Matthews, Blitzer or Cooper have to say anyway. Olberman I would listen to, but we only have CNN in HD, so that's what we recorded. I haven't watched all the coverage that CNN decided to give us last night, but I did watch "Southside Girl," Craig Robinson's intro for his sis, and Michelle Obama's speech this morning, and I thought it was GREAT! I expect to watch the Kennedy tribute this evening with my husband. From my perspective sitting at home, it isn't that the convention is a bust, just the coverage of the convention.

[KNadine]

11:54 AM on 08/26/2008

AgeofReason - Watch the coverage on C-SPAN. No Pundits - just the Convention. I enjoyed the Convention last night. I tuned in around 6pm and watched all night.

[Roshi98]

11:55 AM on 08/26/2008

Having watched CSPAN instead of the MSM's coverage, the convention came across even more unfocused and staged than I would have though possible. A mile high and an inch deep was the resulting image from last night. Let's hope that the remaining three days aren't as casually wasted as the first.

[NorVaGal]

04:14 PM on 08/26/2008

Roshi: "...unfocused and staged..." must be in the eyes of the beholder. I watched long segments of the convention on CSpan, interspersed with small tune-ins to corporate media, who covered their own narcissistic egos rather than the actual convention. They gave the majority of their coverage to GOP pundits (I thought the Repub convention was next week?) and to spinning and amplifying negative divisions betweens the Clinton and Obama supporters. Like you, they found nothing positive because they weren't looking for anything positive. Surprise!

I LOVED the CSpan coverage and thought the energy and enthusiasm displayed was awe-inspiring. I was proud to be a Dem and look forward to more neutral coverage by PBS. YOU should try it. You might learn something besides sour grapes.