Having never been to political conventions before, I lack the experience to make comparisons to the past, but here's some emotional reactions from the past two weeks:
The DNC in Denver felt mostly like a summer festival. The protests were colorful, musical and mostly peaceful. The moods inside the delegate areas were various flavors of lovefests for the faithful (with the occasional awkward bitten lip by Hillary Clinton backers).
The Ron Paul "Rally for the Republic" event in Minneapolis felt like a college sign-up day, with lots of passionate but kinda nerdy academic groups staffing booths to get new members on board for the semester. Regardless of ideological merits, tt was welcoming, open and fun.
I thought it would be unfair to say the RNC in St. Paul felt like a city under occupation -- that talk seems a bit hyperbole given events elsewhere in the world -- but after talking to David Barton of Texas, my feelings are not unique.
Barton is a old hand with five national conventions in his background, plus work with events in other countries. While he is used to seeing an overwhelming number of riot-control police elsewhere, this year was a first for seeing it stateside.
Watch interview with delegate David Barton about security details