During the first three hours of the confab, a series of teachers, students and single mothers all touted the virtues of education reform experiments, and of Gov. Bush's campaign commitment to education. But most of those presentations ended as quickly as a Dick Cheney stump speech.

Bush himself checked in via satellite after his wife gave the first major address of the evening, just after 10 p.m. EDT. "I can't wait to stand before you Thursday night and tell America how I want to use these great times for great purposes," Bush said. He then went on to introduce Powell, dropping another less-than-subtle hint that Powell might serve as his secretary of state: "I hope his greatest service to America might still lie ahead."

True, the crowd didn't seem to know what to do with the likes of R&B artist Brian McKnight and his pelvis-thrusting troupe of dancers, but they gave sustained applause to Bush's parents -- the former president and first lady -- as well as Bush's running mate Dick Cheney and Cheney's wife Lynne, and of course the reluctant speaker, Laura Bush.

For a woman who'd been promised, early in her marriage, that she'd never have to give a political speech, Bush did a professional job. She gave a softball, first lady-like speech that focused on education and made much of her history as a teacher and librarian. "I feel very at home in this classroom setting," she told the crowd, and she even made a slightly risqué -- for the GOP -- joke at Al Gore's expense.

"George's opponent has been visiting schools lately. And sometimes when he does, he spends the night before at the home of a teacher. Well, George spends every night with a teacher." Ba-da-boom.

But she got the loudest applause with a thinly veiled jab at President Clinton. Talking about all the parents and grandparents the Bushes meet on the campaign trail, she said "They hold out pictures of their children and they say to George, 'I'm counting on you.' I want my son or daughter to respect the President of the United States of America."

The problem with the touchy-feely tone of the first three hours is that the old, partisan stuff stood out like a sore thumb. When House Speaker Dennis Hastert gave his short rah-rah speech bashing House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and President Clinton, it simply felt out of place.

But the difference between the people in the audience and the people on stage -- at least half of who were Latinos or African Americans -- was obvious to anyone who scanned the crowd. As the New York Times pointed out Monday, despite the emphasis on women and minorities during prime time, the delegates to this convention are overwhelming white -- more than 90 percent, according to the Times -- and mostly middle-aged men.

"That's something that we'd like to change, obviously," said Margita Thompson, spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention and a former press aide for the Bush campaign. "And it is happening under Gov. Bush. He's showing that he is a different kind of Republican."

That was one of the major points of the speech by Powell, who once again gave a speech that no other Republican seems willing or capable of delivering. He delivered the most compelling speech of the evening, and just like 1996, he was not shy about taking his fellow Republicans to task.

At the last GOP convention, Powell, who briefly flirted with a possible independent presidential run, thrilled the crowd with the words "my fellow Republicans." But in that speech, he spoke honestly about his support of abortion rights and affirmative action, and at times received boos from some of the hard-liners on the convention floor.

Salon News A Salon-eye view of the day's news, with investigative reports, analysis and interviews with newsmakers.