Dean Esmay notes that the 2004 Democratic platform is now available online and marvels about how much the Internet has revolutionized citizen access to such information.
True enough. One wonders if anyone will read it, though. These things are virtually meaningless, since they represent a consensus of the party activists and no candidate, including the presidential nominee, is in any way bound by it.
The early release of the platform, while minor, is also another step in rendering the national conventions trivial. It has been years since they have been a factor in nominating presidential candidates but there was always a bit of drama in the vice presidential announcement and it was where the platform was hammered out. Now, even those things are done before the conventions. It’s no wonder that the networks have stopped covering them.
