KALAMAZOO (WKZO --WMU Poli-Sci Professor John Clark says the political conventions are not what they used to be.

He says they used to be the only time all year that the national parties actually met, and they did a lot of business, made a lot of decisions and picked their candidates.

Nowadays he says all those decisions have already been made and the conventions are like an awards program where you already know all the winners.

The Republicans have dodged a hurricane, squeezed four days of convening in three days of session and put their best foot forward.

On Tuesday, it’s the Democrat’s turn, and they now know what they have to beat, and what mistakes to avoid.