Just turned on C-Span to see if anything's up with the Democratic Convention and there's Walter Mondale, way back in '84, giving his acceptance speech, listing things that will occur during the Mondale-Ferraro administration…even mentioning a few that might not be attainable until their second term. I'd forgotten what a terrible, colorless speaker he was. There's nothing wrong with what he's saying — even Republicans would have agreed with about 80% of it — but he makes it all sound like your high school vice-principal reading out of a book of regulations. The delegates cheering him at the end, singing and swaying to the song "Celebration," sure don't look like they're about to run out and topple an incumbent. And of course, they didn't.
While I was writing the above, they had a quick clip of Barry Goldwater in what I guess is some sort of Cavalcade of Losers. Senator Goldwater had the opposite problem as a speaker but managed to achieve the same result.