So far the Democratic Convention has been ho-hum to me, but the next two nights should heat up.

I've been watching it on C-SPAN. I like their continual focus on the message from the podium.

Watching the conventions for me is like watching a national sales presentation.

Sales has been my second profession after the military. I was good at it and I have some strongly held beliefs based on first hand experience in the trenches. One of those beliefs is if I have a choice between going first and going last in making a presentation to a prospect, I will go last. I want to be able to respond to everthing I believe my competitor has offered and demonstrate my superiority. That means Democrats are automatically at a disadvantage by having their convention first.

Another of my beliefs is if you know you're going to get an objection to what you offer, then bring up that objection yourself and refute it.

Sales is different from marketing, just like strategy is different from tactics. Marketing and strategy both bring you within range of the target. But once you get within range, you need gunners with the will and skill to put steel on target. You need salespeople who make the deciding gut level emotional arguments that cause people to pull out their cash, checkbooks and credit cards. In politics, you need spokespeople and candidates who can exploit the gut level emotional issues that cause people to vote for your candidate and not your opponent.

Tonight and tomorrow night we're going to see whether Democrats can address the gut level emotional arguments. So far, we're seeing the marketing people in control and Democrats are not getting to the gut level issues. They are not bringing up and overcoming the objections on their own. I'll be watching to see if that changes in the next two nights.

What are those gut level emotional arguments? Here are three.

Will you keep us safe?
How can you govern effectively when your Presidential candidate lacks executive experience?
Can you convince us once and for all that you are not a Muslim/Marxist/Socialist/Communist?

Notice that all three of these issues are based on fear.

Let's listen and see what happens.