Why have political conventions?

Exactly what is the point of either political party having a nominating convention? The advent of political primaries has rendered political conventions a useless waste of time. We knew that before the democratic convention that John Kerry was going be the candidate and that John Edwards was going to be the vp candidate. We know that George Bush II and Dick Cheney are going to be the republican candidates.

This time would be much better spent with a series of nationally televised presidential debates.
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I think their primary purpose is to serve as a point in time when the populous gets to focus on each party and what they potentially stand for.

Conventions may be more production than substance today, but they do remind us that an election *is* going on.

I'm all for that.

It seems to me that we could be reminded that an election is taking place without spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do it. Also we will never get a viable 3rd or 4th party when all of the media exposure is consumed by the demopublican 2 party system.
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