Up until that point, conventions had very little to do with the candidate himself, essentially servingasa party-wide caucus about what the party was going to stand for and recognizing its leaders throughout the apparatus of power.
In the cases in which Belmont is a lead plaintiff, it has said in court documents that it will not accept payment for servingasa representative party on behalf of its class beyond its share of any recovery.
After a solemn first day out of deference to Gulf Coast states taking a battering from Hurricane Gustav, the Republican National Convention reverted to its traditional form asa gathering of partisan speakers and party activists, serving large helpings of rhetorical red meat from a litany of well-known Republicans and former presidential candidates.