Boston, with its flag-waving and saluting and balloon-blowing was supposed to be a commercial for this new and superior brand of politics. But Americans are expert TV watchers. A lot of them voted with their remotes. Those who did watch weren't impressed.
I'm not sure where the writer got the impression that those who watched the Democratic National Convention were not impressed. According to
this Gallup poll, 52% of viewers thought that John Kerry's acceptance speech was either excellent or good, with 19% more calling it "okay". Only 9% thought it was either poor or terrible. Also, according to
this ABC News/Washington Post poll, over 10% of the American people changed their minds regarding who they trust more with pretty much every issue facing America. The most dramatic change is that Kerry and Bush are now pretty well statistically tied regarding who would do a better job in Iraq and in the war on terrorism; previously Bush had had on average a 15-point lead on Kerry in the former and a 20-point lead on Kerry in the latter.
Of course, all of this may change before November. Maybe Bush will get a huge bounce following his convention. Maybe he'll flop and Kerry will surge ahead. However, at this point, the election could still easily go either way and I personally believe that any people who think that either Bush or Kerry is a shoo-in at this point are fooling themselves.
