Any party leadership convention must strike a balance between conflicting objectives: to choose the messenger or the message; the candidate who reflects their ideals or the candidate who can win. The candidates, likewise, have a choice: whether to tell party members what they want to believe or what they need to hear. In their convention speeches, they must decide whether to craft a message that can win the party, or one that can win the country. Today's column, on last night's speeches. Fat lot of good Kennedy's boldness did him.