The Convention(al) Thinking is Wrong

Next week begins the first of two weeks of the National Party Conventions, first the Republicans in Tampa followed by the Democrats in Charlotte.

The first conventions I remember watching were in 1968.  At that time the Conventions were held up to a month apart.   In retrospect there was a lot of coverage of the Democratic convention in Chicago, mainly because of the riots there, but the Republican convention was significant because the nominee was not entirely decided, and there was talk about multiple ballots.  Richard Nixon barely got the nomination on the first pass through the roll call of states (He needed 667 delegates and ended up with 692).

That's about the last time there was any suspense at a political convention.

This year, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will be nominated by their parties and lots of speakers will take the podium during the 7 nights of convention activity.

And the polls will probably continue to show a dead-locked race.