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The Democrats have left Chicago, and so ends too the seeming bipartisan mission to "end conventions as we know it." The two conventions were slick, processed, agreeable, and targeted for the tear ducts. Kwame Holman closes the book on this scripted convention season.

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KWAME HOLMAN: Chicago didn't quite go through the preparation nor handle the cost Atlanta did in staging the summer Olympic games, but the city that works, as Chicago is known, did put on its best face to host the Democratic National Convention. And now comes the clean-up. In the run-up to this convention, the news media spent considerable time comparing this Democratic meeting to the tumultuous 1968 convention here in Chicago. Now that it's over, the differences are striking. Instead of the massive civil protests and the aggressive police response of 1968, this week there were few demonstrations, quietly staged and hardly noticed by the hundreds of Chicago police officers who were prepared for problems but only needed patience instead.

MARY WRIGHT, Demonstrator: I'm disappointed, a little disappointed. I'm more than a little disappointed. Umm, I know this--I understand this city and the security issues, uh, that they had to deal with, but we're so far removed from everything here and at Grant Park as well.

KWAME HOLMAN: In 1968, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff used his presidential nominating speech to chastise fellow Democrat and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley for using “gestapo tactics” against the demonstrators. In his nominating speech this week, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd criticized Bob Dole. And where delegates were pushed and shoved around the convention floor in 1968, delegates this year did the Macarena. And, of course, the delegates were treated to periodic updates on the travels of Bill Clinton aboard the 21st Century Express. Live satellite transmissions were beamed back to the convention center as the President whistle-stopped his way through five Midwestern states. But for the most part, Democrats staged a traditional convention, not quite as much a made-for-TV event as the Republicans held in San Diego, the Democrats talked a lot.

SPOKESMAN: Diversity and inclusion, mutual respect, and celebration of difference are the air we Democrats we breathe.

KWAME HOLMAN: Don Foley was the convention manager.

KWAME HOLMAN: Lots of speeches, lots of political rhetoric.

DON FOLEY, Convention Manager: Well, we did have about 198 people speak from that podium, which is about twice as many speakers that we believe we've ever had before at a convention. So we too made our speeches a little bit shorter, so the pace at which we were moving was a little quicker than we've done in the past.

KWAME HOLMAN: But on Monday night, actor Christopher Reeve, paralyzed in a horse-riding accident, spoke well past the scheduled 11 o'clock Eastern Time end of the opening session. So on Tuesday, convention planners moved First Lady Hillary Clinton's speech from the last event to earlier in the evening, reportedly under a threat from the major broadcast networks that they would dump out of their convention coverage at 11 o'clock, no matter who was speaking. The networks denied making the threat. But the result was the evening's keynote speaker, Indiana Governor Evan Bayh, had to deliver his address after Mrs. Clinton's to a convention that was quickly emptying. The major networks, however, did air Bayh's speech in its entirety.

DON FOLEY: Well, that was really unfortunate, and it was an embarrassing moment for us at the convention because we certainly wanted to make sure that Gov. Bayh had an opportunity to say what we think was a very important message to the American people. If there was one single regret we had in terms of the execution of the program, that would be it.

KWAME HOLMAN: But because the major television networks tried to limit their convention coverage to one hour the first two nights, they didn't air two of the most emotional speeches of the convention delivered Tuesday by former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson.

JESSE JACKSON: Stand tall, Mr. Clinton, we will win and deserve to win. Please hold the line. I love you.

KWAME HOLMAN: But from the perspective of Alabama delegate Rex Cheatham, the convention was a success.

KWAME HOLMAN: Rex, is this what a political convention is all about?

REX CHEATHAM, Alabama Delegate: Oh, this is what it's all about, the excitement, the enthusiasm. You know, four years ago we had a great convention, but there's so much more optimism this year because of President Clinton's record of success, jobs, education, the economy, you know, there's just a feeling here of victory.

KWAME HOLMAN: This is Rex Cheatham's third convention. He was in Atlanta in 1988 to help nominate Michael Dukakis in New York four years ago to nominate Bill Clinton.

REX CHEATHAM: There is no comparison.

KWAME HOLMAN: And in Chicago last night.

KWAME HOLMAN: Already, news organizations are talking about covering the next set of conventions even less. Are conventions just losing their importance?

REX CHEATHAM: Oh, I disagree with that. Think about the next convention. We will have eight to ten candidates running for President trying to defeat Al Gore. I personally believe Al Gore will be the nominee because of the tremendous job he's done as Vice President but Dick Gephardt, Jay Rockefeller, I could go on and on naming others who will probably be candidates. So, you know, we could have a convention where we don't know to the last minute, and you guys will be here covering every minute in that excitement.

DON FOLEY, Convention Manager: If that's the case, I would say that those people making the analysis today that these things are--conventions are a thing of the past. They would be making a premature judgment.

KWAME HOLMAN: And as organizers close the books on this convention, one idea they're all considering is shortening the convention in the year 2000 and maybe holding it on the weekend.

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