I’m headed to the Democratic national convention in Denver over the weekend. I’ll be there with my colleague Matthew Bell, both of us reporting for PRI’s The World.I’ve never been to one of these things before. As a kid in the UK, I remember watching the American electoral process roll out in all its gaudy glory. And I was a total sucker for it.  It was so extraordinarily different to the way politics played - and plays - out in Britain. Sure, we have Prime Minister’s Questions, the parliamentary knockabout show in the House of Commons, but there’s nothing to compare to the circus of a national convention.In the UK, the equivalent event is the annual party conference (the major ones being Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.) Historically, these events are dominated by images of leaders looking windswept in rainy seaside towns that are a few decades past their best.Or of the so-called blue rinse brigade holding politicians’ feet to the fire in a way that only the elderly can do.Things have changed a bit these days, with British politicians (starting with the Tony Blair of the mid-1990s) imitating some of the elements more associated with the American way of doing things.  But there’s still nothing to compare with the exuberance, the theater and the sheer glitz of the conventions. And for that reason, I feel like a kid about to enter the candystore.