As a first-time delegate to a state political convention, I found the recent Democratic event in Worcester to be great theater and terrific fun.

The excitement, energy, color, noise and even element of suspense in the cavernous Centrum Centre hall were contagious. The rhetoric, often overblown, still was somehow inspiring.

These were good people delivering a political message that hewed to the traditional Democratic Party principles of a helpful, caring government more concerned for those members of society who have been overlooked or left behind rather than for those who are doing just fine.

I came home somewhat fatigued, yet energized by what I had witnessed even though in the end the convention was a total waste of time and resources for most of the candidates and their elected delegates.

When all was said and done, the convention cleared the way for all five candidates for governor to have their names on the September primary ballot; likewise for three of the four candidates for lieutenant governor and all four candidates for state treasurer.

A party convention has as its goal to make choices, to winnow candidates in order to prepare for the upcoming test against the Republican opposition.

Even though Shannon O’Brien ultimately got more than 50 percent of the delegates to secure the party’s official endorsement as its gubernatorial candidate, she will have to share the primary ballot with four other candidates.

Thus, in the race for governor, lieutenant governor and treasurer absolutely nothing was settled by the convention.

If there had been no back-room deals, which involved swapping of delegates, only three candidates would have gained a place on the primary ballot - O’Brien, Senate President Thomas Birmingham and Robert Reich, to whom I was committed as a Ward 7 delegate from Northampton as a result of February’s party caucuses. That would have offered real choices to Democrats in the primary.

 Warren Tolman, the self-professed candidate of principle and Clean Elections advocate, or Steven Grossman, former national Democratic Party Chairman, simply did not have enough delegates on their own to earn a place on the primary ballot. So they cooked up a transparent deal - trading delegates on succeeding ballots - which enabled each to reach the threshold for a spot in the September primary.

For me, Tolman’s deal-making was particularly odious, given the Mr. Clean outsider image that he has cultivated. It was clear that Tolman and Grossman formed the alliance with the specific aim of undermining the Reich candidacy, even though Reich earned his spot on the primary by going out and corralling the requisite number of delegates through hard work and grassroots organization.

As a consequence, Democratic voters will face a hopelessly crowded ballot in September for the three top constitutional offices which can only benefit the Republicans and their sole gubernatorial candidate, Mitt Romney.

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I have always sensed a certain sadness about Teddy, despite his bravado. After the assassination his two older brothers, he had to shoulder a heavy political burden to continue the family legacy. As a person, Teddy was badly flawed and not up to meeting the expectations and demands imposed on him. Still, he has persevered and survived, and, through hard work, emerged as a productive and valuable senator. His speech was pure Teddy, solidly liberal and delivered with passion. Kerry’s acceptance speech, on the other hand, seemed pitched to a national, rather than local, audience as if he were warming up for a presidential quest.

All these icons of liberalism made me feel more at home with this party, in contrast to the right-wing Democratic Party that Bill Clinton shaped during his presidency.

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Because delegates sit in designated sections that conform to state Senate districts, a sense of community prevails within a delegation. For example, Sen. Stan Rosenberg was much in evidence for those of us sitting in the Hampshire Franklin section, where he visited and politicked with friends and constituents from Hampshire county towns and from Franklin County communities as well. If you looked around, over there was U.S. Rep. John Olver, and there was Mayor Clare Higgins, and former Mayor Mary Ford, who, as teller, was in charge of counting the votes for each of the ballots. Lisa Baskin of Leeds was indefatigable in working the delegation for that extra vote on each succeeding ballots for her candidate, Shannon O’Brien, as was Register of Deeds Marianne Donohue.

I also ran into a few ghosts from the past, including Peter Arlos, a long-time political operative from Pittsfield, who was head of the Democratic Committee in that city when I was a young reporter at the Berkshire Eagle in the early 1960s. We chatted briefly this time about the Reich candidacy which he was supporting. Also, I bumped into the legendary political reporter and syndicated columnist from the Washington Post, David Broder, who I last had met in 1966 in Chicago when he was covering the Senate race involving the late Sen. Paul Douglas, for whom I was working.

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Saturday’s voting took so long that it stretched way into the night, with the result that most delegates headed home, as I did, well before the convention ended. It took just shy of two hours for the voting and counting of the first ballot for governor, and then there were two more ballots, plus balloting for two other offices.

The need to make the vote count verifiable and true is all the more urgent in light of the election results in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.

Maybe the process can’t be computerized but no one on hand for the voting, especially someone new to the process, could guarantee that the count as either efficient or accurate.

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So how did I enjoy my experience as a delegate to a state political convention? Great, I thought it was just great, even though the convention did not accomplish anything other than to make politics interesting once more. Maybe that’s what a convention is supposed to do.