HILADELPHIA - Frank Ellis. Gayle White. Jack Crowley. Leilani Durate. Kenny Gamble. Hector Barreto. Kim Jennings. Christina Jones. Raul Fernandez.
These were some of the prime-time speakers at the Republican convention. The obscure lineup helped paint a picture of diversity, but this week's event did little to promote the careers of rising political stars within the party.
National conventions have often been launching pads for future presidents. A young senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, burst out of the Democratic ranks with a spontaneous bid for the vice presidential nomination in Chicago in 1956.
With a strong presence in Kansas City in 1976, Ronald Reagan laid the groundwork for his victory four years later.
Bill Clinton managed to turn a disastrously long speech at the 1988 Atlanta convention into helpful notoriety in 1992.
Mario Cuomo, governor of New York at the time, gave an electrifying speech at the Democratic convenion in San Francisco in 1984 that kept his name in running speculation through two more election cycles.
But this year in Philadelphia, no stage was offered to the Republican reserves and little jockeying took place among ambitious figures who might be looking ahead to 2004. It was as though the GOP is confident George W. Bush, whose campaign dictated the convention schedule, will be running for reelection that year.
No valuable exposure was given to this year's also-rans, Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes, and Gary Bauer, or to such TV talk-show favorites as Representative John Kasich of Ohio, Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, and Representative Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Most of the familiar voices heard from the podium belonged to past political wars and former President Bush's era: the retired generals, Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf; former Senator Bob Dole and his wife, Elizabeth; even the new vice presidential nominee, Dick Cheney.
The hundreds of receptions and after-hours parties were also free of overt base-building. Usually, delegations from states hosting the early contests in the primary season are wooed four years ahead of time by prospective candidates.
''In Houston, Senator Gramm really romanced our delegation,'' said former Iowa governor Terry Branstad, recalling Phil Gramm's spadework at the 1992 convention for the Iowa caucus in '96. At the last convention in San Diego, former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander did the same thing, courting the Iowa crowd months before the party's nominee, Bob Dole, went down to defeat.
''This year, we haven't had any contact with a potential national candidate,'' Branstad said. ''We're optimistic that we've got a winner in George W. Bush.''
New Hampshire delegates were also spared. ''We've had parties and receptions, but we haven't heard anything from anyone,'' said delegate Bobbie Coffin.
The only alternative figure enjoying any celebrity this week was Senator John McCain of Arizona. Though he had a coveted speaking spot Tuesday night, appeared at numerous events, hosted private parties for friends in journalism, and kept a pace consistent with a candidate considering another race in 2004, McCain was careful to emphasize only his loyalty to the Bush-Cheney ticket. Nearing 64, he said he knew it would be difficult to capture again the magic of this year's campaign.
So Philadelphia offered no other portent for 2004 than the current governor of Texas. As Tim Fitzpatrick, the convention's press secretary, said, the goal was always ''to personify the priorities the governor has placed at center stage.''
