Last night's Democratic Convention program was enough to anesthetize all but the most rabid followers of politics. It's nice that PBS and CNN and a few others care enough to telecast hours and hours of the event, but there was little going on of interest to anyone but the Democrats. As a result, the TV commentators filled time trying to analyze things. And frankly, there was nothing left to analyze. The story of Hillary-supporters' unhappiness has been picked clean.

And I'm not sure the Dems' convention planners did themselves any favors by starting the big event of the night - Hillary Clinton's speech - at a quarter to 11.

Ah, well. I'll catch up on my sleep over the weekend.

Clinton did well, I think. And if some of her supporters still like John McCain? Well, no Democrat except Clinton could have satisfied them. And once she got in office, I'm not sure they would have liked her anyway.

A few high points from last night:

Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner's criticism of George Bush. "It's not just the policy differences. It's that this president never tapped into our greatest resource: the character and resolve of the American people. He never asked us to step up. Think about it: after September 11, if there was a call from the president to get us off foreign oil to stop funding the very terrorists who had just attacked us, every American would have said, ‘How can I do my part?' This administration failed to believe in what we can achieve as a nation, when all of us work together."

Warner's not a great public speaker, but buried in his talk last night was the kind of vision that the country ought to grasp. If we could get ourselves off of foreign oil, we could work on building 100-mile-per-gallon, plug-in hybrid cars, researched and developed by American workers. If pulled out of Iraq and put our resources in the right places, we could bring down health-care costs, educate and train our chidlren, restore America's leadership.

And I loved Warner's line: "In just four months, we will have an administration that actually believes in science, and then we can again lead the world in life-saving and life-changing cures."

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer brought some levity and energy to the convention hall. And every Democratic politician needs to shout out his message: "America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, but has less than 3 percent of the reserves. You don't need a $2 calculator to figure that one out. There just isn't enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America's full energy needs. Barack Obama understands the most important barrel of oil is the one you don't use." Got that, Randy Kuhl?

Hillary Clinton's speech was typical Clinton: full of references to people she had encountered during the campaign: a single mother fighting cancer, "the young man in a Marine Corps T-shirt who waited months for medical care," "the young boy who told me his mom worked for the minimum wage and that her employer had cut her hours...."

She did what she needed to do, though, embracing Obama's bid forcefully and urging her supporters to do the same.

"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?" she said. "Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?"

Those are questions Clinton's supporters need to take to heart.

The Republicans' Convention starts on Monday, and it's a good bet that they'll ramp up a campaign based on fear and the need for military power. In preparation, voters of all stripes ought to read today's New York Times column by Tom Friedman.

Reflecting on his time in Beijing during the Summer Olympics, Friedman writes: "As I sat in my seat at the Bird's Nest, watching thousands of Chinese dancers, drummers, singers and acrobats on stilts perform their magic at the closing ceremony, I couldn't help but reflect on how China and America have spent the last seven years: China has been preparing for the Olympics; we've been preparing for Al Qaeda. They've been building better stadiums, subways, airports, roads and parks. And we've been building better metal detectors, armored Humvees and pilotless drones."

A McCain presidency will bring us at least four more years of that. As several speakers at last night's Democratic convention insisted, this November's election may be our last chance to turn things around.