The Rest (Like the First) is Silence

Didn't watch or listen to any of the Democratic convention tonight. Since nothing was likely to be said that would change my mind or give me information I could use to change somebody else's mind, listening would be an exercise in instance triangulation. That is to say, I would be trying to listen with somebody else's ears, the ears of someone who might be drawn into the Obama camp based on what she/he hears.

I don't know how to listen so tactically. There is no point in doing this, at least on the first night. But curiosity is strong. I'll use my own ears on Hillary and Obama. Still, in the background I've be looking over my own shoulder, like a nurse in an epidemic taking the temperature of imagined others rather than tending my own fever.

And the value? Interesting conversation with like-minded friends about how *they* think the Great Unconvinced will react. And then the sport of matching my conclusions with those of the pundits.

And then we will look at the polls, as if all the spin and filtering hadn't turned them into a kind of Heisenberg exercise.