The conventions are coming

Have to admit, the presidential election has me missing my 12 years in a TV newsroom a little bit. In my former life as an executive producer of newscasts, I also served my time in the frantic producer chair during several key election nights – the most memorable was Jesse Ventura’s jaw-dropping victory as Minnesota’s governor, but that’s a story for a future post.

I like politics. I don’t particularly like most politicians. Or their campaign staffs.

That’s why, even with the Twin Cities buzzing about the upcoming GOP convention in St. Paul, it’s hard for me to get too excited about an event just a few miles from my home that’s getting to be more and more of a non-event in truly deciding who will guide us for the next four years.

Conventions are scripted. Predictable. Yes, boring. Most years, they are everything that election nights are not. It’s amazing to me the money that’s getting thrown around to sponsor and pay for the “show” on TV that quite frankly most Americans will ignore. Journalists assigned to cover the convention here, and the DNC in Denver next week, rarely do more than report the expected. There’s nothing unexpected to it.

Not to mention, the words that will be spoken on the stages by the candidates don’t matter as much to some people as they way those words are delivered. The diehards will tune in to see if Obama maintains his electricity as a speaker – and if his wife does that annoying fist bump again – and to see if McCain finally learns to not look so dang uncomfortable.

Substance, right? Conventions are hardly substantial. It’s style time. It’s show time. It’s about millions of dollars to make one impression in one voters’ mind, at least until the debates.

I’m more interested in seeing the campaigns cover news about themselves from the convention in creative ways. Will we see backstage videos and photos on their social media communities and Web sites and blogs? Will they pop in unannounced at restaurants and have real conversations with people who had no idea they would ever actually meet the candidate face to face? Will they break out of the boring mold and make any surprise promises, pledges or revelations?

We can dream, can’t we?

No, it’ll be boring. At both conventions. Again. And, I would argue that the people who will tune in to watch Obama in Denver and McCain in St. Paul have already made up their minds. Even the on the fence voters rarely watch parts of one or both conventions. They’ll wait for the debates.

So will I.