This year, Republicans remain acutely mindful of the challenge they face: How best to showcase McCain, an unpopular party's aging, less-than telegenic standard-bearer, against Obama's soaring oratory and historic status as a major party's first black nominee.
Still, the enthusiasm gap between the two events is already noticeable.
Democrats have already signed up 22,000 volunteers for their convention, while the St. Paul gathering has attracted just 10,000. GOP organizers insist they have work for only 10,000 volunteers and are more than happy to stick with that number.
Then there's the problem of President Bush, whose popularity, slipping for months, has tanked along with the flagging economy. The convention Web site bears little mention of the president's name; its home page quotes McCain saying he is proud to be nominated by "the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan."
