He wasn't included on the schedule on the wires, but they let mayor Jim Hahn speak at the convention Wednesday in Boston. He got three minutes at midday, "watched by a handful of viewers back home on C-SPAN — if he was lucky," says the Times' Michael Finnegan.

Hahn used his three-minute stint to cast himself as Kerry's partner in the fight against crime. He praised the Massachusetts senator for working with former President Clinton "to put thousands of new police officers on our streets."

"Crime went down, and our economy improved," Hahn told several thousand chattering delegates, few of whom paid attention to the parade of afternoon speakers who preceded the evening's star, Kerry running mate John Edwards, the North Carolina senator. "Our country's current leadership has shifted away from that commitment, and we need it now more than ever."

The mayor appeared to make little impression on delegates from his home state.

"We were talking," said Mabel Teng, who chatted with fellow San Francisco delegate Larry Mazzola all the way through Hahn's speech. "I didn't hear it."

Delegate Steve Wardinski of Huntington Beach was more attentive but reluctant to offer an assessment. "I'm going to be polite," he said. "He says compelling things without saying them in a completely compelling manner."

Antonio Villaraigosa got four minutes Monday, also in the off hours.