At a luncheon sponsored by the Poynter Institute on Tuesday, MSNBC
anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski shot down the notion that
political conventions have outlived their usefulness.

Despite the cynicism, Scarborough told the audience that the
conventions are still “important” and cited recent examples of
conventions that have “made a difference.”

“You go back four years ago, even though the story went very badly for
Sarah Palin the last convention made a difference. Sarah Palin ignited
the Republican ticket and in fact, they were ahead of Barack Obama
until the fiscal crisis of Sept. 15 that John McCain mishandled. These
things matter,” said Scarborough.

Another example: George H. W.’s 1988 “extraordinary” speech. “The guy
was 19 points down... that brought George H.W. back,” Scarborough said,
while noting that the speech’s prominent “read my lips” phrase would
later come back to haunt the 41st president.

“This is American democracy in action and I think the longer we keep
politicians in a confined area, the more likely they are to screw up
and give us a real story,” said Scarborough.

Brzezinski agreed with her co-host that the conventions still matter
and said she was excited that her 14-year-old daughter was attending
her first political convention this year as a blogger for the
Huffington Post.