Convention Diary

Mucho media glare this week for the Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara. Grandma Barbara boasted that her granddaughters had been "a huge hit" with the athletes on their recent visit to Athens. More specifically, it seems the boys of Wrestling USA would like to get them in their grips. But while the "first twins" party in the Apple this week, Emily Pataki, daughter of George, the New York Governor, is working - as a special correspondent for the nightly TV celebrity show Extra! She nabbed Jenna and Barbara at a Monday-night bash at the Roseland Ballroom. And later the same evening, she pulled off a real coup: an exclusive on-camera conversation with her Dad in Elaine's restaurant.

Has Madison Square Garden shrunk? Well, yes, in a way. In an effort to make the setting seem marginally more intimate, organisers built a false floor, nine feet above the court where the Knicks usually play. When he accepts the party nomination tomorrow, Mr Bush will be on a different stage, lower than the one used so far and in the centre of the arena. Among the people is the idea.

Pity the group of young men in pressed white shirts and sober ties who found themselves getting an unexpected work-out at the convention while watching a video tribute to American veterans. The soundtrack occasionally featured a few bars of the national anthem. Every time they recognised the patriotic strains, the young men got to their feet, only to realise it was only a snippet and quickly sat down again. They were up and down like yo-yos...

George Pataki may have granted his daughter an interview, but al-Jazeera, the Arabic news network, has not been so lucky. What's more, the network says, its reporters have been pushed and shoved by Pataki heavies. "We were shocked," complained the Washington bureau chief, Hafez al-Mirazi. "He's an elected official who represents so many Arab-American voters - why should his staff do that?"