DNC: The outtakes

Here's the serendipity of conventions: You run into all sorts of people from the world of politics. Here are three:

-- James Carville: The Democratic strategist and TV talking head was relaxing outside the CNN booth at Time-Warner Arena. I asked him if he thought holding the DNC in Charlotte would help President Obama's campaign.

"I hope so," he said. "I'm always sort of skeptical that a convention site in early September brings voters in early November."

He also said if Mitt Romney loses North Carolina, he loses the election.

-- Jeff Greenfield: The TV analyst was with his friend Joe Klein at a Sunday reception at the Duke Energy building. He likes Charlotte as a host city.

"It's great, he said. "The whole uptown area is so amenable. The folks are terrific. The venues are spectacular."

-- Chris Lehane: The Democratic strategist turned film-writer is here in part to screen his new film "Knife Fight" starring Rob Lowe about corrupt California politics. He showed parts of it at a Politico Playbook breakfast hosted by Mike Allen at Packard Place.

He called conventions "a political appendix," vestiges of another era. This is the first year parties will have done both their conventions in three days, not four.

"Between Tampa and Charlotte, they'll be inflection point conventions," he said. Jim Morrill