• You could write the headlines ahead of time: "Biden Wows Crowd" "Palin Wows Crowd" "McCain Speech Hailed" "Obama Speech Hailed." Of course the crowd is going to be wowed. Of course the speech will be hailed. This is because the audience consists only of people who already agree completely with everything that has been said, is being said, or is going to be said. It's like preaching to the choir and the choir is related to you and also owes you money. You cannot give a bad speech. Everything is funny. Everything is interesting. Sarah Palin got a three-minute standing ovation for her speech and that was before she gave it.

• Call me naive, but I was surprised that every morning at both conventions the Utah delegations had their breakfasts paid for by sponsors. These ranged from drug companies to energy companies to all else in between. I found this odd. I thought all that went out with Jack Abramoff.

• Biggest surprise: that the delegations from Utah were so much ... alike. I left Denver for St. Paul thinking the Utah Republicans couldn't possibly be as easy to hang with as the Utah Democrats, and then I got to St. Paul and found the Republicans to be every bit as easy. There are differences. The Democrats have an open bar, the Republicans have an ice cream social. The Republicans are a bit more imperious, the Democrats are a bit more cynical. But at the end of the day, as much as they might not want to hear this, they both put their campaign badges on one lapel at a time. (And just one small bipartisan question: If Republicans want smaller government and Democrats want more government, why were there 29 Democratic delegates and 36 Republican delegates?)

• Maybe it's the conventions that put them all in such a good mood. What's not to like when all week long you know you're going to hear what you want to hear? When you're in the choir, there's no such thing as bad preaching. That's what I'll remember most from Denver and St. Paul.

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Lee Benson is filing columns daily from the Republican National Convention. You can e-mail him at benson@desnews.com.