What time do you typically go to bed at night?  Eleven o’clock seems to be the favored hour for turning in.  Of course, if you’re an octogenarian, you might begin to yawn around 10 p.m.  Which means you’re not in the mood to watch  speeches at a political convention. Prime time—when most people turn on the TV—is between 7 to 9 p.m.  Consequently the voters most apt to view the convention last week were those who live on or near  the West Coast.  In preaching to the choir, did the Democrats squander prime time? 

Voters in  the blue states like California, Oregon and Washington got to  view the convention during  prime time.  But what was the advantage to that?  Those people already knew who they were going to vote for, so basically, Democrats  were just playing to their base..   

 The battleground states at this time are defined as Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. Look at the time zone map of the United States.  Only one battle ground state—Arizona—was able to view the convention while they were most alert, during prime time.  

I think if I were a political planner of either party,  I wouldn’t really care how many people on the West Coast watched the convention. Those states are a done deal.  They  are going to vote Democratic, no matter what.  Seems like you’d schedule the show to start at 8 p.m. central time. That way, you would reach more of the swing state voters while they’re still wide awake.   

Actually, the conventions may not make much difference, in the long run. The DNC convention, overall, was somewhat of a flop, with viewership on the first night down 48% from 2016. I suspect the Republican convention next week will fare just as poorly. I don’t think anything is going to replace the excitement of live audiences, cheering, booing, shouting, waving and clapping in response to flaming oratory speeches.