One of Ours

...the Democrats' namby-pamby decision to go positive -- not to attack the arguably very, very vulnerable administration of George W. Bush -- has put a pall of niceness over the proceedings that, try as they might, cranky-minded TV commentators haven't done much to dispel...

But a little hard-core, down-and-dirty political colloquy would seem more than appropriate for a time in which Americans are threatened by international terrorism on one side and economic woes on the other...
[...]
A viewer could have come away from the speech with the impression that Edwards was saying "a Kerry-Edwards administration will be even better than Bush-Cheney" rather than "the current administration has got to go." He didn't offer enough motivation for changing leadership in the middle of an apparently intractable war.
[...]
...Katie Couric told viewers of yesterday's "Today" show on NBC that Illinois legislator Barack Obama had "electrified" the crowd with his stunningly eloquent speech Tuesday night. Too bad NBC refused to show it. Too bad profit-mad NBC-Universal was determined to air its lame reality shows and sitcom reruns instead. And then Couric tells us we really should've been there. The networks are just plain nuts.
[...]
Coverage by cable networks lasts longer but strays often from whatever is happening on the vast stage (with the vast screen behind it) in Boston's FleetCenter. On Fox, gabby and opinionated commentators occasionally will allow a few minutes of a speech to air, but then they return to the spotlight they love so much for their own use.
[...]
...The networks have got to look for a better convention story than the hoary old bore about how conventions don't matter any more. It makes them sound like shills for the corporate front offices, who hate to lose an hour of profit-making pap even in the middle of summer.