Conventions are about message, and the Democrats have been on it . . . at least from the podium.

The back-to-back Clinton-Obama unity fests may have been just what the party needed. But on the day of Barack Obama's historic nomination, scattered cracks in the message continued to show not far from center stage.

“I don't think he's going to win,” Sandy Cleary, an Ohio delegate and Hillary Clinton supporter, told Scripps Howard News Service.

“Obama's not my cup of tea, but I'll vote for him for the party's sake,” she said.

Granted, the vast majority of delegates are fired up and ready to do battle for Obama. But still . . . .

Well, surely, the Democrats in Denver believe that a John McCain presidency would be a bad thing.

“Some of you may not like what I have to say,” former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida told his state's delegation yesterday. “We have two quality people running for president.”

“McCain is not a perfect man. He can be a little emotional . . . but he is fundamentally a good person,” Graham added.

No problem there. Most Democrats seem to think McCain's a good guy.

Then, uh-oh.

“I would feel comfortable waking up in the morning with John McCain as president,” Graham said.

– Michael Smolens