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I'm not the political junkie I used to be. As a matter of fact, the thing that keeps me interested these days is personally knowing a lot of the players, having friends who work for them, and being aware of the behind the scenes goings on. Of course I'm concerned about national security, social security, the economy, the environment, civil rights, education and health care and stuff. But put 50 dems and 50 repubs in a room together and you'll likely still have at least 80 different ideas on how to fix things. Some of them won't even think anything's broken. And the ideas don't always come down to political ideologies.

Still being interested in how elected officials get their jobs, I'll probably watch a lot of both political conventions these next two weeks.

The scene inside the Pepsi Arena in Denver this week is pretty impressive. They've turned that great big room into one huge stage. How cool! The job for any show promoter these days is to appeal to as many of your senses as possible. Not being there, I'm not sure about how the room feels or smells or tastes, but it looks and sounds good on TV. Kudos to the event creator and crew.

One of the things I always try to remember when I look at political campaigns and their party conventions is that people write speeches and people recite speeches. The person who does the drafting doesn't necessarily have to believe their own words. We as the public don't tend to hold the writers to their own ideas. We scrutinize the talker. We look for that something on their face, in their eyes that tells us whether or not we can take them at the writer's words.

The pundits today are dissecting last nights opening of the Democratic National Convention. Who was sincere? Who wasn't? What was real? What was fake? Was there something wrong with Senator Kennedy's right arm? I mean, he did wave with his left. And Michelle Obama blinked a lot. All the people who are paid to beat up Democrats woke up this morning with plenty to work with. But, the folks who are obligated to to make the country as blue as possible do to. Personally, I felt day one of their convention was nothing gained-nothing lost.