Convention is tightly scripted - no empty chairs in Charlotte

by: Matt

Wed Sep 05, 2012 at 09:00:00 AM EDT

Roll Call goes behind the scenes:

Enter a group of seasoned veterans who know and understand their party and their convention. These people know that they are meant to put on a show, seduce the public, amuse the media and, perhaps most importantly, script a tight message.

At the Democratic National Convention, this team is made up of four people who will have written every word spoken on the convention stage, outside of individual politicians' speeches. The scriptwriters are a part of the larger Podium Operations Team, which is sequestered in a narrow closet of an office in the make-shift labyrinth under the belly of the Time Warner Cable Arena stage.
...
From 9 a.m. to at least 6 p.m., the script writers wrote non-stop. Everything from the introductions for each speaker to all the procedural processes, the DNC resolutions and anything else that will knit the convention together.
...
The program starts this afternoon [Tuesday], and from there every name pronunciation and every word choice is noted in the script. Almost every word that will be uttered on the stage from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. and then again from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. is already drafted.
...
Don't expect moments like the Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican National Convention in, Cramer said.

"I was watching it feeling very uneasy and just thinking, 'My god, this is very sad,'" he said.