Political conventions are now just long commercials. For the most part, whether they succeed or not can be judged the same way a commercial for shampoo is. Did the customer buy the product?

At this point, the national polls say that the answer is no. The polls have been largely a wash since Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate and the convention began.

Maybe Obama’s stadium show at Invesco will change that. This column is being written before Obama basked (and perhaps drowned?) in adulation.

There is no doubt that the folks in the stadium will have left thrilled, mesmerized and motivated. Just like the 200,000 who swooned at Obama’s feet in Berlin.

But the good folks at Invesco were already members of the choir. The audience that mattered most was the one watching on television or listening on the radio (perhaps while stuck in traffic ).

There is a real risk for Obama in moving his big night to Invesco. His poll numbers dropped after his self-aggrandizing blowout in Berlin. John McCain’s spots have effectively portrayed Obama as an empty celebrity, more famous for being famous than for any accomplishments. The rock-star images that will flow from Invesco will only feed that perception.

Obama certainly didn’t help himself with the enormous Greco-Roman monument he built to himself in the middle of Invesco. All hail Emperor Obama! But what the hail was he thinking?

When John Kennedy gave his acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum he stood on a simple platform. His presence came from his proven courage and accomplishments. He didn’t need special effects from Hollywood to make himself look big.

The truth is that Obama is a man of very few accomplishments, no military experience, and no executive experience.The fact that believes that he has to build a phony monument to make himself look bigger than he really is says it all.

That’s why voters have not bought what the Democrats have tried to sell this week. And I don’t think they’re going to be fooled by the Hollywood production at Invesco.

Dan Caplis is a lawyer and co-host of KHOW radio's Caplis & Silverman Show.