The Hindu Business Line : Party carnivals

FOR sheer drama, spectacle and mass hysteria, it is hard to beat the national conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties in the US that nominate presidential candidates.

Once every four years, the country, and indeed the world (at least that part of it glued to the TV), are transported to heights of vicarious excitement by scenes of surreal extravaganzas organised by both parties on a scale unimaginable anywhere else.

The whole venue, saturated with festoons and balloons, is full to overflowing with 5,000 or more delegates and other party faithfuls, dressed in colourful and even exotic costumes and wearing ingeniously decorated hats, joyously waving banners, flags and placards, shouting slogans, jostling, jumping, and dancing, deafeningly roaring with approval at every mention of the name of the candidate or the party plank, and doggedly drowning with jeers every reference to political opponents.

It is a boisterous celebration of participatory democracy at its inimitably glorious best and really something worth being part of.

Well, I witnessed both conventions from my sitting room, transfixed in wonderment and admiration. Inevitably, I fell to the temptation of rating them. I would gladly award high marks to the Republican convention which certainly packed lot more chutzpah and punch than its Democratic counterpart.

The Republicans had the advantage of show-stealers such as the California Governor, Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger, the poor Austrian immigrant who became an icon in his own right by making it to the top league via bodybuilding and stunt films and who transported the throng to a state of delirium.

Yet another icon but of a different kind was Mr Rudy Giuliani, who, as Mayor of New York at the time of 9/11 terrorist attack, displayed qualities of extraordinary leadership that impressed the entire nation regardless of party affiliation.

There was even the titillating appearance of a well-known Democrat, Mr Zell Miller, who gave a rousing speech endorsing Mr Bush.

The carnival organised by the Democrats was lacklustre by comparison. The dramatis personae were less eye-catching, and in zest, ideological fervour, and articulation their presidential and vice-presidential candidates — Messrs John Kerry and John Edwards — were not the equals of Messrs George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Mark you, this is all about the showmanship and not the merits of candidates.