BOSTON -- Charles Smith of Plainville remembers lying in bed at night when he was a child, listening to the national political conventions on the radio.

Conventions were full of smoke-filled rooms and loaded with tension in those days.

Often, no one knew for sure who the party nominee for president would be until the delegates finished voting.

The voting sometimes went on for several ballots before a consensus emerged, he said.

Now, nominees are selected well in advance through primary elections, and the votes of the conventions merely ratify what was already decided. ``There's no excitement or drama anymore,'' Smith, 62, said Monday on the way to a pre-convention party in Boston.

For complete story, see today's Sun Chronicle.