The third night was certainly better than the first two. There were messages and themes and aggressive speeches. But I'm still not sold on the convention. It's increasingly solid, but I'm not sure it's doing what it needs to be doing: Undermining John McCain's national image before his convention spends four days interviewing his fellow prisoners of war and wondering about Obama's dad, Muslim-preacher Bill Ayers. As it is, there are basically three speeches of note a night, two of them televised. Here's what they've been so far: Monday: Ted Kennedy: Alive, and passing the torch. Jim Leach: A Republican endorsing Barack Obama. Non-televised, non-publicized. Michelle Obama: Not scary. Tuesday: Mark Warner: The future is important. Brian Schweitzer: Petro-dictators won't take our American sun and wind. Non-televised. Hillary Clinton: The Democratic Party is united, though much of it wishes I were the nominee. Wednesday: Bill Clinton: Contrary to my past statements, Barack Obama is ready to be president. John Kerry: John McCain's maverick image is a fraud. Candidate McCain has buckled beneath the worst forces in American life. Non-televised. Joe Biden: This ticket cares about the middle class. McCain doesn't. Say what you will, but that's a fractured message. Some of it isn't the Obama campaign's fault: They couldn't wish away the hangover of a long and bruising primary. Michelle Obama was never going to be an attack dog. Ted Kennedy is ill. Barack Obama does need Bill Clinton's endorsement. But even so, there are exactly three speeches on this lineup that went forcefully at McCain. Two of the three -- Kerry and Schweitzer -- weren't broadly televised. And Biden's was the least forthright of the set. So of all the major speeches at this convention, only one televised address went directly at McCain. That seems like a wasted opportunity to me. It doesn't mean the convention is going poorly, but judged in the context of the RNC convention following right on its heels, it seems problematic. Some of this was clarified when I talked to a speechwriter last night who said that this convention was being used to inoculate Obama from next week's attacks. That's a strategy of preemptive defense, and though I'm not a professional, it sounds like a bad move.
