The first night of the meeting focused on the theme "Plan for America's Future" with speeches devoted to building optimism for John Kerry's candidacy.

A forty-three page document, the party platform was entitled "Strong at Home, Respected in the World" – also the name of the theme conveyed on the last night of the convention.

The section defined specific goals and actions to create what the party called "good jobs" and "standing up for the great American middle class."

The section defined specific goals and actions to reform the healthcare system in the United States, to improve education and to protect the environment.

With John Kerry arising as the winner of the primaries, it ultimately was one of the few presidential nominating conventions that was held in the home state of the party's nominee.

[15] Security measures included bomb-sniffing dogs, 7-feet high metal barricades, a ban on corporate and private flights at Logan International Airport, along with the temporary closure of Interstate 93.

[16] The police union, for example, gained attention with threats of picketing of delegates from entering and exiting functions – a dilemma for Democrats as the party has traditionally been an ally of organized labor.

[17] His keynote address, although not carried by the commercial broadcast television networks, was well received, which further elevated his status within the Democratic Party and led to his reissued memoir becoming a bestseller.

"[19] Obama noted his interracial and international heritage: he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Kenyan immigrant father and a white mother from Kansas.

[20] Not yet formally nominated for the vice presidency, John Edwards took the stage at the convention to give the first major national speech of his political career.

"[21] He called for one health care system, equal in quality to the coverage received by senators and other elected officials, and promised to establish a Patients' Bill of Rights.

[21] Edwards proposed one public school system for all, arguing that "None of us believe that the quality of a child's education should be controlled by where they live or the affluence of their community.

Senator Max Cleland delivered a speech proclaiming that the global conflict and active wars in Afghanistan and Iraq required a decorated military hero such as Kerry in the White House.

[25] In addition to the Obama, Edwards, and Kerry addresses, there were also speeches from former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, former vice-president and 2000 presidential nominee Al Gore, New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, former candidate Al Sharpton, and presidential advisory counsel on HIV/AIDS Denise Stokes.

Polls conducted after Kerry's speech showed no significant increase of support (or "convention bounce") for the Democratic nominee's bid to unseat President Bush.

[26] Democrats ascribed the disappointing numbers to an unusually polarized electorate that year with few undecided voters, though Bush did get a small bounce out of his convention.

[28] Approximately 400 members of the Bl(A)ck Tea Society marched through Boston's financial district and headed toward the FleetCenter, where they set fire to an effigy that showed George Bush on one side and John Kerry on the other.

Local Boston politicians were joined by presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and long-time activist and California state senator Tom Hayden in a call to end the occupation of and to remove U.S. troops from Iraq and to bring in an international peacekeeping force.

An estimated 2,000 anti-war members marched at the same time as approximately 1,000 anti-abortion activists, and the two groups crossed paths en route to the convention center.

They challenged the decision, but it was upheld by a federal judge, who sided with the Secret Service in determining that the protest would be too close to Kerry's home, potentially endangering the presidential candidate.