Brings back ’72 Dem Convention memories doesn’t It (Yes I was at that one with the AP). The one when they finally nominated Thomas Eagleton for VP in the wee hours of the morning and only then did George McGovern get to give the acceptance speech.
Of course by that time no one anywhere was watching and only Frank Sinatra was up – telling a story to a bartender named Joe.
Last night? Bill Clinton – for 35 minutes, really, still and wandering all over the place? We’re not bartenders Bill, there is a schedule at these things. But also lots of others not needed to be heard from and never mind their themes. Like the inauguration poet and her dramatic drivel? It was time wasting sentimental claptrap.
No, it was absolutey not okay, none of it.
It was supposed to be the night Tim Waltz got introduced to the nation. Yhea the Democratic Party has met him and likes him a lot, love him in fact. But the nation, the mass of voters, of TV watchers just looking in now? No, they don’t know him yet.
So the result of this all sloppy carelessness, of having the inauration poet and Stevie Wonder and this person and that person?
The result was that Tim Walz did not go on until 11:22 p.m. EDT when he should have been on precisely at 10 p.m. EDT.
And the means precisely. Any campaign pro, any advertising time buyer, can tell you there is a reason 10 p.m. TV time costs a whole hell of a lot more than at 11:30 p.m. What’s the difference? Most of the 10 p.m. audience has watched the local news at 11 and then gone to bed. It’s why “prime time” is 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Oh but ok it was still not that late moving west through the other three time zones, right? So it didn’t matter that much, right?
Wrong. It mattered a lot and it matters still. There are seven contested states. Three of them, Pennsylvania, said to be the most vital, North Carolina and Georgia are in the eastern time zone. It mattered plenty. It will going forward but it was a night, a lost prime time opportunity, that cannot be gotten back.
On MSNBC Laurence O’Donnell called it campaign “malpractice.”
Walz was great, hit all his marks, his themes, and did it in less than 20 minutes or so. But, becasue of the totally failed convention time management by others, he was over an hour late for the big audience.
Who was watching at 11:22? Democrats. But they don’t need convincing. Others not so invested in the show who might have been watching, might well have tuned out at 11 and gone to bed soon after.
Conventions aren’t that anymore. They are major TV shows. The hall is the set, the featured actors give speeches or are from TV news and their endless talky panels. The delegates are the extras. The V.P. nominee is the main supporting actor. He gets a night. Walz had his, but at nearly midnight.
The big star of course is the nominee for presient.
A nominee for president gets the last night. It is a night that is supposed to begin at 10 p.m. EDT so that with time built in for big entrances and exits, the actual speeches, audience responses and interruptions it concludes at or just about 11 p.m. EDT.
What does this mean?
It means Harris has to, in fact better be on at 10 p.m. EDT or heads should roll at the DNC and in her campaign.
If planned speakers have to be axed, even at the last moment then that has to happen. We’ll see if it does.
But if you want a true measure right now of how together the campaign is and how in charge of it she is, watch and see what time Kamala Harris takes the stage Thursday night at HER convention.
If it’s 11:22 p.m., she’s in trouble – we’re all in trouble.
Harris has to be on Thursday at exactly 10 p.m. EDT. Let’s see what happens.
Peeling the Onion 