Tom Daschle

The third day of the Democratic National Convention will be called to order at 5:00 PM EST on Wednesday, with a theme of "Securing America's Future."

The day will begin with the nominating process for President, including nominating speeches for U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), followed by a roll call vote.

The headline speaker will be vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).

Featured speakers will include President Bill Clinton (D), U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

The full schedule is below.

In January, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) will have two years under his belt as Senate majority leader. There's no particular reason to suspect that his reign is nearing an end, but recent majority leaders have served short terms, and sometimes hit dead ends in their political careers.

U.S. Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) served for four years as majority leader and then walked away from the Senate. U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) was majority leader for two years before being defeated during his next re-election campaign. It's not a major concern yet, but like South Dakota, the Nevada media market is not terribly expensive, and could present a similar opportunity for Republicans under the right conditions.

After a total of five years, U.S. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) resigned from the leadership post in the wake of a Strom Thurmond controversy. After less than two years as majority leader (the second time), U.S. Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) left the Senate to run for president. After leading the Senate for six years, U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) chose not to run for re-election.

I'm not the only one noticing Harry Reid's rising unpopularity. Even the LA Times has opined that Reid's lackluster polling could very easily spell his defeat similar to former majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD).

Really. Dismal approval ratings for a lame duck President who cannot run for office again are one thing, and Bush hovers around 32%. But Reid's favorability rating of 39% would require an incredible public relations campaign if he intends to run for re-election in 2010. You can rest assured that if he indeed plans on running, he is looking at these numbers every day and pondering how he can dig himself out of this hole.