With 24 hour news cycles and endless speculation centering on the Presidential election, many individuals can become disillusioned with the national conventions. They are no longer the place of high drama filled with fist fights, multiple ballots, or surprise nominations. Although it isn’t quite the spectacle that it once was conventions are extremely important, especially for snatching up the undecided voter.
According to the American National Election Studies they found that a sizable amount of voters wait until the conventions to make their final decisions. In 1988 the number was around 29% and while it has fallen to 14% in 2008 that percent count for millions of voters up for grabs. In the 2012 election that is poised to be one of the closest races in recent years this percent would be more than enough needed to clench a victory in the all important swing states. More than 38 million people tuned in to watch McCain’s acceptance speech, beating out records for Olympics that year. So while people may think the conventions don’t hold much water in the modern era of elections. Americans are still tuning in by the millions to see how the candidates solidify their position to the American people.
While people will always find something to complain about the national conventions either being to big, to long, or no longer relevant. Conventions truly bring a unifying force to a party base, its a change to change the tone away from the negative campaigning and grueling primary schedules, and allow the party and it’s selected candidates to recharge and adjust the landscape of the political field. While there are sure to be moments when they are going to paint their candidates as the worst choice you could possibly make for the country conventions truly center around the parties political platforms at large. While there will always be differences amongst individuals in a political party the conventions for that brief 3 or 4 days serves as a place where political junkies and the less politically involved American can see which party best embodies their values and maybe make their selections on whom should occupy the White House.
