This is Henry Cabot Lodge as painted by John Singer Sargent in 1890. More recent is a striking photo portrait of two of his great-great-great granddaughters.

Massachusetts' political history actually has plenty of non-Democrats, among them Federalists, Whigs and Republicans, and if the somnolent Mass. GOP isn't going to remind people this week, I will.

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"I'm not a liberal at all…I'm not comfortable with those people."

The original JFK who campaigned in his first congressional race as a "fighting conservative" was a centrist who'd have little in common with many in Boston this week who claim to embrace his mantle, a useful piece in The New Republic notes.

True, his domestic politics owed much to the New Deal. But he was also a fiscal conservative, and in the realm of foreign policy he considered himself a staunch cold warrior.

[His] legacy includes a commitment to fiscal responsibility, to a strong military, and to the central place of morality in foreign affairs. Those were the positions that helped transform him into a popular figure among all Americans. And they are the reason that Kennedy's spirit could propel the Democrats to victory again--if they are able to remember him as he was.

(Via Oxblog)

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The Globe's Brian McGrory shares a Kerry memory:

Every time I walk down the gum-stained sidewalks of lower Boylston Street, as I did Sunday morning, I can't help but recall the night about a dozen years ago when I saw John F. Kerry in a hand-groping lip-lock with a woman probably half his age.

I had stumbled into a crowded bar called Marais late one Friday for last call. I left with an impression I'll never really shake. Kerry, an unmarried senator, was in a front booth putting on a widely watched show. If he and the woman were any more public and proximate, they would have needed an adult entertainment license from City Hall.

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In light of the last anecdote, this photo of Kerry takes on even more Woody Allen piquance.

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A Boston Convention aggregator is tracking blog coverage, and BU has a photo wire.

Bill Weld handicaps the upcoming presidential race for Newsweek.

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Conventional Wisdom:

Jonathan V. Last: A NUMBER OF SMART, important speakers followed--Glenn Close, Barbara Mikulski, a children's choir singing "This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land"--but the real excitement is in the box behind me when Michael Moore emerges, clad in a black shirt and blue jeans, with a green baseball cap. It's pandemonium. The nearest delegation is made up of folks representing Democrats Abroad. Their reaction is similar to what you would expect from a pack of 19-year-old boys if Britney Spears wandered, drunk, into their frat house. People vault over railings and push and shove their way up the short stairway to the balcony where Moore is holding court. Ever the gentleman, Moore smiles shyly and shakes hands and signs autographs. Dozens of expatriates can now die happy.

Ann Coulter: Looking at the line-up of speakers at the Convention, I have developed the 7-11 challenge: I will quit making fun of, for example, Dennis Kucinich, if he can prove he can run a 7-11 properly for 8 hours. We'll even let him have an hour or so of preparation before we open up. Within 8 hours, the money will be gone, the store will be empty, and he'll be explaining how three 11-year olds came in and asked for the money and he gave it to them. (Via Power Line

Jonah Goldberg: Everyone from the patchouli-soaked activists with open-toed shoes and closed minds to the button-down blue dogs are holding hands and singing kumbaya for one reason: They hate George W. Bush. Not only is this is an odd motivation for a party that demands that "hatred" be literally outlawed (though hate crimes aimed at Republicans aren't really hate crimes — that's merely "speaking truth to power" or some such). Such unity is particularly shocking because nobody likes Kerry.