First step for Democrats: rousing the faithful

Keynote speaker Bill Clinton, too, took apart the Bush record, although like everyone else Monday night, he never uttered the president's name. Clinton's legacy will always be controversial, whether you see him as having sullied the office in immoral fashion or as the victim of a "right-wing conspiracy." Having the former president get the major chunk of prime-time TV Monday night was a gamble for Kerry. In his own way, Clinton was - and still is for some - as polarizing as Bush.

Still, Clinton's point-by-point exposition of US politics today - laying out the fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans - was as clear a description of the coming fight as is likely to be heard this week. And like all the speakers, Clinton kept turning the issues back to Kerry as being the man who has what it takes to redirect a nation that, according to one recent poll, 48 percent of Americans feel is on the wrong track.

In a way, all of this - the picture of unity, the rousing of the faithful for the fight, the image of the party as broadly representative of the country - is commonly considered to be political kabuki, highly-scripted and choreographed. Television has made it so, as has the lack of any real competition or doubt about convention outcomes. It's been that way for at least a generation.

The assembled delegates - replete with ridiculous hats and dancing - reinforced the night's theme: unity of purpose and diversity of audience, with lots of women (including a special tribute to female Democrats in the US Senate), and lots of racial and ethnic minorities.

Kerry's job is to close the gap between the 47 percent who say they will vote for him, and the 53 percent who say they want someone other than Bush.

It may well be that, except for the candidate and his running mate themselves, the most important speakers this week will not be the party luminaries.

As it did Monday night, the rest of the week will feature a recurring theme: Kerry's wartime experience, not only because it contrasts with Bush's more-limited military service in the Texas National Guard, but because some believe it may reveal character and therefore leadership potential in a way that little else can or does. And here, the most effective speakers are likely to be those who served with Kerry in the armed patrol boats frequently under fire in Vietnam.

Although support of Kerry is not unanimous among his wartime colleagues, most of those who fought alongside him have rallied to his cause. One of the last speakers Monday night was David Alston, a man who served under Kerry's command. Now a minister in Columbia, South Carolina, the Rev. Alston said Kerry, "was known for taking the fight to the enemy."

"Lieutenant Kerry always showed judgment, loyalty, and courage," said Alston. "I came to love and respect him as a man I could trust with life itself."

It's that kind of testimony that may make the difference for John Kerry.

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