I'm beginning to think about the Republican National Convention. It's going to be different.
While Democrats in Denver are arranging for the spectacle of a stadium-sized throng, the Republicans here are staging things a bit differently for their get-together Sept. 1-4. They talk about a more intimate, you-are-there feeling. Simple but classy, they're calling it.
"We're much more simple this time than we have been in the past," said [Executive Producer, David] Nash, a veteran TV producer. "Basically, Sen. McCain and his staff feel that to do something real glitzy and Las Vegas-like would be inappropriate, the way the economy is."
The stage is just 4 feet high and rectangular, which by convention standards is practically Shaker-like. Television cameras will be stationed on the convention floor to give home viewers a greater sense of "being there." And some old flourishes will be absent, including the live band, the tiered podium and the huge presidential seal.
It's the anti-glitz convention. You can see the full schedule here, and it's pretty depressing: