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BOSTON, MA July 28, 2004 — The Reverend Al Sharpton will address the Democratic National Convention in Boston tonight. Sharpton won very few delegates in his own presidential campaign, and it's unclear what impact, if any, he will have at the convention. WNYC's Beth Fertig reports.

Few politicians get invited to appear on the Tonight Show from the Convention, testing their presidential trivia skills against a child.

MAN: Hubert Humphry was Vice President under which president? BELLS. SHARPTON: Lyndon Johnston. MAN: That's correct. (Laughs)

Sharpton has always known how to mix entertainment with politics. His presidential campaign elevated him to a political celebrity, instantly recognized in the corridors of the Convention Center.

SHARPTON: Hey, how you been. WOMAN: Good how are you.

But the convention is also a test of Sharpton's political stature. Though he failed to get more than 10 percent of the vote - even in his native New York - he vowed to use his 27 delegates to bring an urban agenda to the party platform. The document, though, contains just four sentences under the heading Strengthening Our Cities. Sharpton says that doesn't matter, because he believes he got John Kerry's ear on issues that matter to minorities.

SHARPTON: The whole urban agenda. The question of the 10 million job plan. The question of him firmly in support of affirmative action, the question of his dealing with health care//EDIT// all of this came out of our discussions with Kerry.

Sharpton's critics aren't so sure about his political impact.

KELLY: If Jessie Jackson got 1200 delegates and he couldn't do much with that, why does anyone think that somebody with less than 30 delegates is going to be able to do something.

Norman Kelly is author of The Head Negro in Charge Syndrome: The Dead End of Black Politics. Kelly complains that Democrats take minorities for granted. And he says Sharpton hasn't done that much to change that.

KELLY: He's accomplished something new in African American politics. Once upon a time we used to talk about a seat at the table, now he has accomplished being the leader that's going to be the reality TV show host.

That would be Sharpton's new gig on a Spike TV show. He's also signed on with CNBC as a commentator. Some critics have questioned whether Sharpton is more interested in fame than helping the Democrats defeat President Bush. But Sharpton says he's committed to supporting Kerry.

SHARPTON: I will spend a lot of time campaigning for the ticket. I'm already going on the road with him and for him. And the offers that came to me in terms of talk shows and others were things we could have never predicted. And they do not alter my time at all. For example the reality show will take six episodes which we do in 2 weeks. The CNBC thing helps Kerry because I'm there talking on his behalf.

Yesterday Sharpton held a meeting with his delegates at a Boston hotel, where he urged them to get out the vote for Kerry. They were a small group. Just enough to fill 2 elevators on their way upstairs.

MAN: Seven-fifty three. Seven-fifty three.

Bronx City Councilman Larry Seabrook said he has something to offer by being a Sharpton Delegate. He was also a delegate for Jessie Jackson in the 1980s.

SEABROOK: You bring a sense of the locked out. The people who have been forgotten. But also the people who are going to make a difference in this election. If African Americans turn out in large numbers you're going to see a new president elected if that's the case.

On the Convention floor, black delegates who didn't vote for Sharpton said that would be his biggest contribution. Rosa Holliday is from Bay City Michigan.

HOLLIDAY: I think he's actually going to energize the base, bring out the voters and help the ticket, help Kerry and Edwards win the presidency.

Sharpton says he and his delegates will focus on voter registration and turnout in the months ahead. Especially in swing states like Michigan. And in his speech tonight he says he'll push for something else: changing foreign policy to deal with the ethnic violence in Sudan. At the Democratic Convention in Boston, for WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.