"Boston Mayor Menino Revels in DNC Success"

BOSTON (AP) - Boston Mayor Thomas Menino stood under a tent, the steady drizzle splashing against the red brick of a brewery, and beamed as he pumped the hands of visiting Democratic delegates.

He had reason to smile. Three days into the biggest political gamble of his life - hosting the country's first post-Sept. 11 political convention in the cramped streets of Boston - the nagging worries that had threatened his dream, from angry union pickets to terror attacks, were fading.

Sure, police seemed to outnumber pedestrians downtown, and shop owners grumbled that security measures had turned the city into a ghost town, but only a handful of protesters had been arrested and those who ventured into the city found plenty of parking and no wait at restaurants.

More importantly, the convention itself purred along uninterrupted inside the heavily guarded walls of the FleetCenter.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040802/D846PC8O0.html