(FORTUNE Magazine) – Republicans may have finally figured out the formula for a successful convention. At a time when the public doesn't care about--or actively disdains--elected officials, a presidential campaign has no choice but to offer politics without politicians. Night after night, conventioneers in Philadelphia treated voters to lengthy speeches and made-for-TV skits, featuring teachers, environmentalists, generals, entrepreneurs, ministers, and children. (Lots and lots of children.) The rare full-fledged pol was slipped in as an emcee (like Representatives Jennifer Dunn of Washington State and J.C. Watts of Oklahoma) or was portrayed as a war hero (like John McCain and Bob Dole). Convention planners wanted viewers to believe that almost no one at the podium had anything more than a passing acquaintance with the nation's swampy capital.

There's only one problem with that. George W. Bush is a politician deeply immersed in a campaign, who is dying to dive into those murky D.C. waters more than he lets on. His rhetoric doesn't--nor will it ever--betray those ambitions. Instead, Bush will ape Clinton's 1992 campaign strategy of persuading the public that he's committed to taking back Washington from "them" in order to return it to "us." This is especially entertaining because, as the Dick Cheney selection shows, a lot of the supposedly populist leaders of the Bush campaign are the same folks whom Clinton saved "us" from nearly eight years ago.

Expect the same deal as Democrats take center stage in Los Angeles. The Clinton-Gore slogan in 1992 was "Putting people first," and for years both men have used "real people" as backdrops for their speeches as a way to convey how close to the hoi polloi they are. At the Democratic convention, pols are scheduled to take part in "dialogues," which are glorified town-hall meetings. Watch for Gore to campaign against entrenched political interests in the fall, an absurd move since by now he has to be classified as one of "them."

No one is surprised that candidates say one thing and do another, but the hypocrisy factor is higher than usual this year. The best way to get through this election season is to sit back and enjoy the lengths to which both presidential contenders go to mask who they really are. The tactic of hiding behind average citizens will be the most pervasive and manipulative, and in many ways the most enduring, legacy of Election 2000.

--J.H.B.