Ledes.

They matter a lot in the work of daily journalism.

And they're hard to do at political conventions — especially near the end.

It's been awhile since I covered presidential candidates. When I last did, Michael Dukakis was the top Democrat on the ticket. But political culture — and the journalism that covers it — doesn't change much over time. You go, you chase people in suits (and pant suits) around a really big convention center, you stand at the doorway of parties (or wait for your interviewee to come out of them), and you anticipate. A lot.

This time it was all happening in the Twin Cities. And the press pool media were listening to a man too many had written off as a serious candidate for president. Now he was there, at the podium, accepting his party's nomination to be the Republican candidate. It was a Thursday night, Sept. 4.

And words seemed to fail them. I know because they used too many. You know the old saw, "If I had more time, I'd have written less."

Sometimes words fail because the writer is way beyond the moment. Sometimes it's the feeling-behind thing. The feeling is intensified by how muscular the scripting police are doing what they do. At this event, one got the impression there was not much wiggle room for reporters. (In all fairness, the same was probably true for the Democrats' convention. Ask National Public Radio.)

Let's just say the national press corps, mentally, had left the building before McCain got to that big podium with the crystal-blue stairs. Maybe I'm wrong. But look at the ledes.

The Associated Press (with two bylines) said "John McCain vowed Thursday night to vanquish the "constant partisan rancor" that grips Washington as he launched his fall campaign for the White House." Okay, that's not all that long a lede, but it took them three grafs to get to the fact that this was a speech aimed at being not what people thought. (McCain's not a scary conservative and he's not a scary liberal, either.) Granted, that's a hard concept to get across. The important thing, I guess, is that David Espo and Robert Furlow got it in by deadline and got to stick a fork in this convention coverage. Long day, longer week.

David Jackson, with USA Today, apparently just as weary, put it this way: "Republican John McCain launched the final phase of his campaign against Barack Obama and of his nearly decade-long quest for the presidency Thursday, trumpeting what he called a record of reform while casting his Democratic rival as a novice unprepared for global leadership." Yow.

In swimming as in running as in political reporting, you know the person's tired when the mechanics fall apart. Here you see it in a verb like "trumpet" and in a word like "vanquish."

By the third graf Jackson does hit on what was probably worth noting — something readers needed reminding of. History is about to happen. We'll have the first black president ever, or the first female VP ever. Change is coming. No matter what. (So don't stop thinking about tomorrow.)

The headline on Jackson's piece (thank you copy editors) put that fact right up top under the flag on page one.

Deadline convention coverage is so hard to do well.