CARL P. LEUBSDORF Conventions more for public than press

Political conventions used to produce what we call "real news."
At the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago, an enormously exciting open battle erupted after Adlai Stevenson decided to let delegates pick his running mate. In 1968, the presidential nomination was in doubt when Republicans arrived in Miami Beach.
That same year, Democrats staged the most tumultuous convention of modern times with Chicago police tear-gassing anti-war rioters while presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey proclaimed the "politics of joy."
Four years later, the Democrats had so much democracy some sessions lasted past midnight. And as late as 1980, Ronald Reagan created uncertainty by considering former President Gerald Ford as his running mate.
That all seems very long ago. When the Democrats meet this week in Boston to nominate John Kerry, and the Republicans gather next month in New York to renominate President Bush, the main prospect of an unscripted moment is something no one wants to face -- the possibility of a terrorist attack.
So it's hardly surprising that many in the media and political worlds question whether conventions have outlived their use. By scrapping them, delegates, news organizations and corporate backers could save time, effort and money.
But the country would be the poorer. As scripted as they've become, conventions still play a major role in informing voters about the most important choice they make: who will be president.
Besides, we know voters form their opinions by seeing, hearing and reading about the candidates at key moments in the campaign. And the two most important are the conventions and the debates.
Besides, the newspapers, television stations, radio commentators, bloggers and Internet sites that cover the conventions don't have to be mere transmission belts for the two parties.
Conventions enable them to probe and discuss the state of the two parties, their approaches to issues and the personnel who might play key roles if they win.
And they introduce the public to future political stars, such as the Democratic keynoter, state Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
But the flavor of the convention is also important. That mess in Chicago in 1968 told Americans the Democrats were badly split and might have difficulty governing. In 1992, the Democrats benefited from a contrast between their unity behind Bill Clinton and the internal strains displayed at the GOP gathering in Houston.
Candidate evaluation
Still, their most crucial role is to provide an opportunity for voters to evaluate the candidates.
We who cover politics, and bask in its details, sometimes forget that most Americans don't follow this as closely as we do and don't know all of the details we think are ingrained in the debate.
That was brought home again to me at a focus group last week in Dayton, Ohio. While participants had a rather clear sense of President Bush, who has appeared regularly in their living rooms for four years, they knew a lot less -- both bad and good -- about Kerry.
Only one mentioned his Vietnam War service, only two picked up any form of the GOP attack that he is a "flip-flopper," and none used the word "liberal" that is featured in many Republican ads. No one identified his running mate, John Edwards, as a trial lawyer.
So it's hardly surprising that, for the next week, Democrats will focus heavily on Kerry's background, from the Colorado Army hospital in which he was born to his service in Vietnam.
And when he gives his acceptance speech next Thursday night, voters will get their most complete sense to date of the approach he would bring to the presidency and the country's major problems.
Other aspects of the sessions may not be compelling enough for the commercial television networks to provide the gavel-to-gavel coverage that was such a highlight of the early days of television.
But anyone who wants that kind of coverage will be able to find it elsewhere, with or without commentary. It hardly seems excessive to give that opportunity to each of the parties that may govern the nation for the next four years.
X Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.