HILADELPHIA - The news correspondents are growing restless; they've found no news. The conservatives are growing rebellious; nobody is talking their language. The religious activists are growing suspicious; their issues are being ignored.
But maybe none of that is important. Forgotten amid the grousing in the grandstand is an emerging truth of a new brand of political gathering: For the first time in a generation, these sessions of the Republican National Convention are not designed to provide news to reporters, to provide succor to conservatives, or to provide reassurance to activists.
Indeed, there is news here in Philadelphia. It is that the Republicans may have found a revolutionary way to seed the political landscape with a subtle, positive message that defies the needs of the media, confounds the expectations of conservatives, and frustrates the reflexes of religious activists.
The rhetoric may be mind-numbing in its repetitiveness; the stage presentations may be contrived; the tone may be artificial. No matter. The Republicans have their story, and they're sticking with it. And that story is simple: Moderation. Inclusion. A party speaking in unison.
And so as Governor George W. Bush of Texas prepares for a high-stakes acceptance speech that his strategists hope will put a fresh, inviting face on the Republican Party, he is doing so in a convention hall, and in a nation, that for three days has been primed to receive the new GOP message.
''He's got the Republicans united,'' said Governor Paul Cellucci, a close Bush ally. ''He has to get a message to Democrats and independents. He'll seize the opportunity.''
Hour after hour, day after day, from the podium, on the floor, and on the airwaves, the Republicans have been emphasizing education; stressing Bush's personality; arguing that the governor, as foreign-policy adviser Condoleezza Rice put it Tuesday night, ''keeps his word and tells the truth;'' and speaking ominously of the lack of integrity in the Oval Office today.
It may not matter that the television networks have sharply curtailed their convention broadcasts, nor that few people are tuning in to those telecasts or watching on cable. The notion that nothing much is happening in Philadelphia - no credentials fights, no platform fights, no floor fights - is in the air.
That's annoying to the people who like pugilism in their politics, including news reporters.
''Republicans are taking the attitude that no news is good news,'' said L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Conservative Victory Committee. ''The problem is that in politics, no news is no news.''
But the Republican calculation is that, in an era when the public is impatient with politics, no news may be the right tonic, and a politics devoid of conflict may be less off-putting than one full of conflict.
Bozell is not the only critic. ''It's great to talk about leaving no children behind,'' said Keith Appell, a Republican strategist. ''So far the convention is still missing that magic element of `us' versus `them.'''
That element makes for great spectator sport (and, for people like Appel, a happy warrior for conservative causes, great participatory sport). But the Republicans aren't interested in cultivating the notion of ''us'' versus ''them.'' The entire theme of the Philadelphia festivities is ''us,'' all Americans.
Preliminary indices suggest that the strategy may be working. A bipartisan Battleground 2000 Poll shows a modest spurt this week to enlarge Bush's lead, plus an unusual rise in the percentage of Americans who believe things in this country are on the wrong track, a measure of the success the Republicans may be having in Philadelphia.
In this atmosphere, the Bush campaign has no incentive to change its strategy. That's why tonight's acceptance speech almost certainly will hammer at the same themes. ''The most important message he has to send is one of inclusion, that he wants to be president of all the people,'' said Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican.
''He has to connect and make everyone feel great and show his personality,'' said Representative Jennifer Dunn of Washington, a member of the House GOP leadership. ''That's the selling point.''
A jazz concert is defined by the downbeat. This convention is defined by the upbeat. It is discordant to many here in Philadelphia. It may be music to the GOP's ears.
