No surprise here. The toughest ticket to snag at the Democratic Convention is not for the political blah blah at the FleetCenter where the delegates in stupid hats are meeting every night.

The most coveted ticket in Boston--and the hardest to get--is a seat in the exclusive audience for Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, which airs from here this week.

Check back for exclusive RedEye behind-the-scenes reports from the dark intestine of the leading fake news show.

The fake news will be coming from a real room on the Boston University campus, and the small number of free "Daily Show" audience tickets--a couple of hundred a day--have been sold out for months.

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SETTLING IN: Jaded political reporters are accustomed to hanging around presidents, senators and so forth. So the premium is on spotting entertainment heavies, whether it's on--or near--the set with Jon Stewart or an up-close moment with Ben Affleck.

I crashed a VIP reception--no Ben, no Sarah Jessica, no Ludacris. I settled for the Democratic Convention chairman, Bill Richardson, who didn't seem the least bit ruffled by the idea that that the four-day Dem infomercial was not exactly a wow.

However, Richardson did give me a little pinch on the arm--the equivalent of "shut up"--when I pointed out that there wasn't any real news coming out of this $$ extravaganza.

"Remember," Richardson said, "We're just targeting the 10 percent."

Huh?

"The undecided," the New Mexico governor explained. Translation: Democrats are not expecting to change any minds here, just capture those who haven't chosen a side yet.

Then I asked him about Ralph Nader.

"He's not helping," was all Richardson would say when I asked, with all due respect, whether he would like to strangle Nader. In what might have been a show of frustration with Nader, Richardson leaned over and clunked his head against mine.

Who'd have guessed it? The man in charge of the whole Democratic Convention is a headbanger.