THE 1,990 delegates at the Republican convention in San Diego will formally nominate Bob Dole as their presidential candidate, and his running mate.
But that is probably the least important part of the five day gathering. Mr Dole has been nominated since the primaries of last March.
The convention will also approve the party platform, or manifesto, as it would be called in an Irish election. But even that wordy document is not what next week is all about for the "Grand Old Party". What the delegates want is to be sent away from the convention fired up for the eight week election campaign culminating on November 5th. This is all the more important this year as the latest polls are spelling disaster for Mr Dole.
The Republican chairman, Mr Haley Barbour, says the theme for the convention is "Restoring the American Dream". They will be relying not just on the well known party leaders but on "real people living real lives in the real world".
What he means is that the Republicans are not relying on the despised "liberal" media to convey their message. For the first time, a convention has arranged for its own TV coverage thanks to generous donors. The Family Channel owned by TV evangelist, Mr Pat Robertson, will carry the proceedings in full each evening.
Of course, the major networks are also covering the convention, but the organisers have tried to package each session during prime time so that they rather than the TV producers control what the viewers see.
Speeches will be less than five minutes long and interspersed with videos of "regular folks discussing problems" that Bob Dole will promise to fix.
The convention will work up to a climax on Thursday night when Mr pole and his running mate will be triumphantly nominated. Earlier in the week there will be a "celebration of Republican ideas and achievements" presented by speakers such as retired general Colin Powell, who was the Dole running mate the convention would have died for.
Also there to recall past glories will be Mrs Nancy Reagan, but not Ronnie, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Speakers such as Mr Newt Gingrich will try putting the boot into President Clinton and the Democrats. But the keynote speaker, New York congress woman, Ms Susan Molinari, is having to overcome media attention on her contradictory statements on whether she took drugs at college or not. The party platform favours a tougher stance on drugs and crime.
But by Thursday, the squabbles over abortion, drugs and running mates will be drowned out in the acclamation for Bob Dole and his vice presidential hopeful. This might be the last celebration for Republicans for a while.
