Michelle Obama headlined Monday's carefully scripted opening night production, aiming to bring attendees a view of her husband as a humble spouse and father that Americans can relate to. It was embarrassing to see Michelle Obama pimping for her husband.
Delivering the keynote speech, Michelle Obama told the assembly that her husband represented typical American values. What else was she supposed to say? That her husband was a political hustler who had enough hubris to run for the presidency with virtually no experience behind him?
She spooned on the syrup: "What struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, and even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine."
"He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did."
The humiliating depths she plummets to hype their 'ordinariness'. Oh yeah, any Tom Dick or Barry can run for president.
Michelle Obama's comments came as a rejection of Republican accusations that Barack Obama is an aloof celebrity.
She has faced similar attacks during the presidential campaign, with Republican accusations of her being unpatriotic when she said her husband's political success made her proud to be an American for the first time in her adult life.
Part of Michelle Obama's task in Monday's speech was to soften her own image as an assertive black woman - an image some American voters feel uncomfortable with.
"I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president," she told the audience. "I come here as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world."
Why don't more people cringe when they hear this sort of stuff? It's embarrassing, demeaning and condescending.
Before Michelle's 'ordinary folks' hustle we had the maudlin appearance of the almost dead Kennedy.
Ted Kennedy pumped up the hype. The man who was diagnosed in May with brain cancer and is in poor health, made a Rocky Balboa-like appearance to hand the baton of the party to the Obamas.
“Nothing, nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering,” Kennedy said.
How brave, How noble! That a dying man should struggle to the podium and praise the next Caesar! Not a dry eye in the house! The Pepsi convention as soap opera. Sentimental Crap!
“This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans,” he said, later adding that he will, indeed, be on Capitol Hill when the Senate is seated in January.
After that, Michelle Obama and her older brother harkened back to the days when Barack Obama first began courting Michelle and related the presidential nominee’s presidential skills to qualities befitting the most powerful position in the world.
It was soothing and eerie at the same time. It was also mind-numbingly boring.
Then came the kicker – a four-minute exchange with Barack via satellite.
He spent the time in a well-orchestrated chat with his family (nothing here happens by accident – at least not on center stage).
A good portion of the of the give-and-take was between him and his 7-year-old daughter Sasha, who at one point said charmingly “I love you daddy.”
It was a sickening synopsis of how the family came together. What did they hope to achieve? That the punters just might have swallowed the antidote to the hard-to-pinpoint distrust many voters have feel about Obama?
"Look at us, folks! We're just as dumb as dumbed down America." If we're taken in by last night's spectacle, then we really are getting dumber.
With the task of selecting their presidential nominee a formality, the biggest challenge confronting many Democratic Party delegates is choosing from an excess of memorabilia.
Delegates filing in to their Denver hotels on the weekend were assailed by a range of Barack Obama merchandise that suggested whatever change Senator Obama might bring, the hype will remain the same.
Obama T-shirts, polo shirts, various baseball caps and hooded windcheaters, cuff links and lapel badges might be standard rally fare, but the Democrats are offering more than a wardrobe makeover.
So what if Senator Obama does not look like a late-night, poker-playing, liquor-drinking kind of guy? Delegates can still make out that is his style with a pack of Obama playing cards and shot glasses at $US10 ($A11.50) each.
Unfortunately, the playing cards were created months ago, so vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden rates a lowly six of spades while Obama is the king of all suits.
For those with more traditional tastes there are the Democratic Party dinner placemats, as well as a board game of political misbehaviour called "Wreck the Nation" and allegedly popular yo-yos at $5 apiece.
And for the traditional party supporter, at $3 each, there are no fewer than 18 different Barack Obama badges to choose from, including one in which he appears alongside his erstwhile bitter rival, Hillary Clinton, with the legend "United for America".
Michelle Obama warrants her own, pink-toned badge, and the whole Obama family features on another: "America's Next First Family".
Other badges simply bear the words "Hope" and "Change".
For the outdoors types there is a $US10 travel mug, a set of golf tees and party-badged golf balls for $US15. Party organisers have established memorabilia stalls staffed by volunteers in five city hotels as well as through the National Convention Centre.
"The playing cards are popular. The caps are big and the convention shirts ($US22)," Virginia-based Democrat and volunteer staffer Jesse Beasley said.
"People get excited. It's only once every four years. The candidacy of Obama is bringing a lot of people into politics for the first time, or bringing back people who have become disenchanted."
What they will find on their return from the 2008 Democratic National Convention is that some things do not change.