Written by: Beck

Talking head prognostication: Kerry needs to show his human side and let people know what he stands for. Evidently, polls indicate that a strikingly small number of people know what Kerry actually stands for (relative to normal levels for a challenger at this point in an election campaign). Furthermore, the adjective most commonly associated with Kerry is "rich" followed closely by his reputation as a flip flopper.

Some other talking head (wish I knew these people's names... but PBS is bad about captioning): Someone giving rousing rhetoric, turning red in the face, can be great motivating a crowd, but that doesn't necessarily play well on TV. Kerry is best in interviews where he can directly relate. In large public speeches, his oratory is lacking.

Amy Walter: People are saying that this is the most important election in our lifetimes, yet people are no longer able to sit through a 15 minute speech anymore. So the speeches don't matter as much.

The unstated implication, of course, is that media coverage becomes that much more important as the conventions & speeches lose their relevance. Inasmuch as the media leans heavily to the left, that makes such alternate sources of information, such as talk radio & online sources, that much more important.

Some other guy: This is important, but this is really only going to impact a very small number of undecided voters who haven't made up their minds. In other words, we shouldn't expect to see a big bump coming out of the convention.

While I grant that these conventions grow steadily less relevant each year, I wouldn't say that it's significantly less relevant than any convention since, say, 1992. And all of those have consistently yielded a tangible post-convention poll boost. If Kerry can't deliver, he's hosed.