They've preached to the choir; now they're aiming for you

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Now it gets real.

After two weeks of political theater -- the Democrats at their national convention in Denver, Republicans in St. Paul -- the contest for the White House is a 61-day surge, no longer played for the committed but aimed at swing states and undecided voters.

At both conventions, the parties and their candidates were preaching to the faithful while trying to persuade a wider audience on television.

Conventions are set pieces. The cheers are guaranteed, not only for the major players atop the tickets but for minor figures who get brief turns on stage in the warmup hours.

It was all scripted to the minute -- right down to the four minutes allotted for "extended applause" when nominee John McCain took the stage in St. Paul on Thursday night. And the eight minutes for a demonstration and balloon drop when he was done.

The people who come to national conventions, wait in the security lines, pay jacked up prices for rooms and food -- $18 for a sandwich and salad at the arena in Denver -- are not going to change their minds about their candidate.

They're the loyalists, the cheering voices, and the convention show is meant to motivate them to work for the ticket when they get home.

In the scant two months left before Election Day, McCain and Barack Obama will be on the road, working to make sure their base voters go to the polls and try to persuade neighbors to go with them.

But they'll also reach for voters who haven't decided or might switch.

That's why McCain said in his convention finale that as president he would fix "the constant partisan rancor" in Washington. Obama, the Democratic nominee, promises much the same. Each man says that he can do it and the other can't.

The early-bird factor

The campaign intensity is up a notch because in 31 states -- including North Carolina -- the voters don't have to wait until Nov. 4.

In Ohio, early voting begins Sept. 30. The votes will be counted on Election Day, but in some states, as many as 20 percent of the voters will cast ballots sooner.

There's also the pressure of the campaign debates, the first of the three between Obama and McCain in only three weeks. McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden will debate in St. Louis on Oct. 2, the newcomer governor of Alaska against the veteran senator.

Drawing contrasts

The Republicans had a bit of an advantage in the convention matchup, simply because they got the last word.

They also got to play off the Democrats, needling Obama about the Hollywood-like set built for his acceptance speech to 84,000 people in a Denver football stadium. Palin said it was all empty rhetoric amid "those Styrofoam Greek columns." McCain had the platform in the GOP convention hall cut down to a T-shaped stage to put him closer to the audience for his closing speech -- to contrast the McCain town hall style with the Obama extravaganza.

But Obama got what he needed in Denver, especially when Hillary Rodham Clinton embraced his ticket and urged her voters to become his. Clinton made the unity motion that ended the presidential roll call and made Obama's nomination unanimous.

Then, the morning after the Democrats adjourned, McCain seized the stage with his startling choice of Palin, the first woman on a GOP ticket, unknown nationally, with a sparse political resume.

Republicans at the St. Paul convention kept saying what a solid pick she was, not only qualified for the No. 2 nomination but ready to become president if need be. The chorus made it sound as though they were trying to convince themselves. Palin showed her skill as a political speaker in her polished national debut at the convention Wednesday night, nearly 40 minutes before the biggest crowd she'd ever addressed and a television audience swelled by curiosity about her.

The matter of her daughter, 17, unmarried and five months' pregnant, surfaced before the convention's truncated opening session, trimmed to the essentials because of the hurricane threat to New Orleans. President Bush canceled his convention appearance because of the storm, and Vice President Dick Cheney stayed away too. Bush appeared by satellite link from Washington on Tuesday night; remote was better for the McCain campaign, given the president's unpopularity.

Palin's daughter won't be much of an issue. It was only a distraction, and briefly.

But there is a certain irony in the situation, given that the Republican platform deals with teen-pregnancies by urging "replacing 'family planning' programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education."

On and on and on

The back-to-back national conventions were the first since 1956 with only a weekend break between them. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the Republicans that 2008 is already historic.

"It is the longest presidential campaign in history," he said. "And it sometimes felt even longer."