What was missing from DNC opening night?
 

The democratic platform.

On opening night of party conventions I am used to hearing what the platform for the party and the candidate will be. No one seemed to bring that up. They all spoke very highly of John Kerry and Edwards but there was no plan or platform for what they are going to do to help bring America back to its former glory. They talked a lot about what needed to be changed but not about how they plan to change it. Will it come in the days to follow? Perhaps with John Kerry’s speech on Thursday. I think they were trying to go for more of an emotional push on opening night. Kind of like a shotgun versus a riffle. You are going to hit more people with an emotional shotgun than a riffle bullet of facts which tend to go over peoples heads. Just wondering what all of your thoughts are on this and your overall impression of opening night.

I thought Clinton's speech, while not a policy speech per se, pretty much laid it on the line...

i.e. the difference between the two choices.

Yeah, but it was still pretty vague on details. While it was a masterful speech he did not go into how to get from A to Z. It was just "We are at A and we want to get to Z". I guess that will be the Johns job on Thursday.

Re: What was missing from DNC opening night?
 

The Democratic platform is what causes "swing-voters" to not vote Democrat. The single-most powerful thing that Kerry/Edwards can say to get elected is "We are not George W. Bush." However, that falls a little flat considering that neither Kerry or Bush are interested in enacting truly conservative government policy. When the major difference between Democrats and Republicans is their stance on [gay] marriage there isn't much for voters to choose between.

As if there was very much to vote for between the two anyways

Nice way of describing it assilem. I know it's been stated to death but no one has ever said how Kerry plans to do anything he talks about.

Get the UN involved in Iraq. Great... France/Germany plan on veto'ing it to save their own crashing political careers.

Balance the budget while not raising taxes. Great... two wars going on how do you plan to do that?

Increase welfare/social reform. While balancing the budget AND paying for two wars?

I could go on but you see. Now I'm used to politicians promising the moon on election year, but any three year old knows you cant go straight, left, and dig a hole at the same time.

I'd say that taxes/government spending is a significant issue as well. Also, privacy. And a woman's right to choose. And a host of other things. There are some things to choose from. True, third party candidates are going to be more diverse....whatever.

Kerry is also significantly different than Bush on the Environment. Kerry's a tree hugger and Bush is a "if a tree falls in the woods, is there someone there to deem that forest unfit so we can clearcut the whole grove." kinda guy.
Kerry is against Bush's changes to New Source Review, which will allow Bush's campaign contributors to perform maintenance on the most dirty power plants in the nation without upgrading their emmissions. This includes allowing them to increase their mercury emissions four-fold. Mercury poisoning is already causing brain damage to children in this country.
He is also fully against how Bush is administering No Child Left Behind. Changes to that will have a big impact on the US

I'd say there are significant differences between the two other than the gay issue.

All the traffic on my way home!

The Dems are trying to keep John out of sight as much as possible and not give the Republican attack machine any fodder. But, don't worry it will start and they will eat him alive.

What was missing from DNC opening night?

They needed more Republicans.

I think that the strategy has been to let Bush hang himself for as long as possible, and it appears to have worked up to this point. Whether or not they will "eat him alive" remains to be seen.