When Conventions Mattered

Do you remember the last time that a national political convention had real drama and impact? Nowadays the networks don't even bother covering most convention events; the main speeches are scheduled for prime-time live broadcast and the rest is largely ignored. As if to deprive the conventions of even the slightest suspense, the nominees for vice president are nowadays announced before the conventions open, following the example set by Ronald Reagan in 1976. (1)

But older readers will recall televised conventions that offered suspense, drama, conflict and real surprises. Here are some unforgettable moments that Americans saw in their living rooms:

1952: Republicans: A floor fight over seating the Georgia delegation was won by Eisenhower forces, a victory that clinched the nomination for Ike. Who can forget the moment when Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen pointed his finger at former NY Governor Tom Dewey (the GOP nominee for president in 1944 and 1948) and bellowed " We followed you before, and you lead us down the path to defeat!"

1952: Democrats: Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver led on the first ballot, but did not secure a majority. He picked up only a few votes on the second ballot; a sure sign (that I did not recognize at the time) that his candidacy was doomed. Meanwhile President Harry Truman, who had lost the New Hampshire primary to Kefauver, flew in from Washington and was allowed to address the convention before the third ballot. He strongly endorsed Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, and soon all the other candidates (Harriman, Kerr, Russell) except Kefauver withdrew in favor of Stevenson.
Stevenson swamped Kefauver on the third ballot, then chose arch-segregationist Senator John Sparkman of Alabama as his running-mate, perhaps to forestall another southern walk-out, like that which had occurred in 1948. The ticket carried the Deep South, West Virginia and no other states.

1956: Democrats: Stevenson was nominated again, this time easily. He declined to name a candidate for vice president, leaving the choice to the convention. Estes Kefauver edged-out Massachusetts Senator John F Kennedy in a nail-biting cliff-hanger roll-call vote. For Kefauver, the epitome of the Fifties Democrat, it was to be the "Last Hurrah" on the national stage. For Kennedy, it was the first national exposure of the handsome young man who would lead the party into the Sixties.

1964: Republicans: NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller was nearly drowned-out by boos when he attempted to address the convention. "This is still a free country!" Rocky interjected. "Some of you may not like it that way, but it still is!" Later reporter Dan Rather of CBS was briefly taken into custody by security guards while on camera.
Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater accepted the nomination with the dictum: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice!"

1968: Democrats: President Lyndon Johnson had declined to seek re-election, and Senator Robert F Kennedy had been murdered; the names placed in nomination were Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. Meanwhile anti-war demonstrators clashed with Chicago police on Michigan Avenue, as millions watched on live TV.
Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut rose to nominate Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. To the raucous and fractious convention he declared, " When George McGovern is President of the United States, we won't have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago!" Livid with rage, Mayor Richard J Daley shouted epithets (2) at Ribicoff, as other delegates cheered and booed.

1972: Democrats: McGovern won the nomination this time, and offered the vice presidency to Abe Ribicoff, perhaps out of gratitude for the 1968 oration in his behalf. When Ribicoff declined the honor, McGovern picked Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton. Several other candidates were nominated from the floor of the convention, including Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, who nominated himself. (3) By time the balloting was over, and the nominee was called upon to give his acceptance speech, it was after midnight in most of the country.
Eagleton was subsequently replaced by Sargent Shriver, and the ticket carried only Massachusetts and the DC, the worst showing of any Democratic ticket up to that time.

1976: Democrats: Nominee Jimmy Carter referred to former Vice President "Hubert Horatio Hornblower", possibly a Freudian slip alluding to the man's over-the-top style of oratory.

1984: Democrats: Nominee Walter Mondale promised to raise taxes if elected. He wasn't.

1988: Republicans: Nominee George Bush dared Democrats in Congress to "Read my lips---No new taxes!" Videotape of this line was used effectively by Bill Clinton four years later, after Bush had signed into law the biggest tax increase in US history.

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(1) Reagan selected Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker for vice-president, and urged that the convention rules be changed to require all presidential candidates to disclose their VP choices in advance. President Gerald Ford beat-back Reagan's challenge, and slated Senator Bob Dole as his running-mate.
In 1980, Reagan waited until he had been nominated to pick George Bush as his running-mate.

(2) Daley later said that he called Ribicoff a "faker". Some observers thought he used a stronger insult. This question is still unsettled, and always will be.

(3) Thirty-six years later, in 2008, Gravel was again a candidate for the Democratic nomination, this time for president. Perhaps he derives some satisfaction from the nomination of fellow Alaskan Sarah Palin for vice president, even if it is by the Republican party.

The Female Factor

"After John McCain, Sarah Palin is the Republican best qualified to become president."



Read this sentence aloud with a straight face. How far did you get? Even if you can say it now, could you have spontaneously said it a week ago? If not, what has changed?



Substitute "Barack Obama", " Joe Biden" and "Democrat" for the proper nouns in this sentence, and the only problem would be saying that Mr O is somehow more qualified than Mr B. (Reread the last Glazerbeam on this point.) Still, the choice of Governor Palin undercuts the Republican claim that Obama is "not ready" to become president.



Of the myriads of people who have praised this choice as brilliant (or better), how many of them would have been this elated if McCain had nominated a male Republican with an equally thin resume?



It is obvious that Governor Palin got the nod because McCain wanted a female running-mate, and of the handful of Republican women holding statewide office, Sarah Palin does stand out as more attractive and feisty than the others. It helps that her political positions are even more standard Republican than McCain's. Many Republicans favor drilling in ANWR even though it could hurt the caribou herd; Sarah Palin actually hunts caribou. I can picture her warning one of the beasts, " Go ahead, antlerhead, make my day!" before pulling the trigger.



Although governor for less than two years of a sparsely-populated state, and previously the mayor of a very small (pop. 6,715) town called Wasilla, her qualifications to serve as vice-president are actually about even with some vice-presidential nominees : Franklin Roosevelt, (*) William Miller (1) and Spiro Agnew, for example. Even the boyish-looking Dan Quayle had served in both the House and Senate before being chosen for VP, although he was a very junior member of both chambers. Richard Nixon, although a senator for only two years when tapped by General Eisenhower in 1952, had won national fame in the Alger Hiss case while a congressman.



Most nominees for vice president had been experienced senators (such as Harry Truman, John Bricker (2), Alben Barkley, Estes Kefauver, Henry Cabot Lodge (3), Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie, Bob Dole, Lloyd Bentsen, Al Gore, Walter Mondale and Joe Lieberman) or had served in either the president's cabinet (such as Henry Wallace , Jack Kemp and Dick Cheney) or in other important positions (such as George H W Bush, former Director of Central Intelligence and Ambassador to the UN and China, and Sargent Shriver, who had organized both the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty.)

But will Sarah Palin draw lots of votes from disappointed Hillary-backers who want a woman on the ticket? The feminist base of Hillary Clinton's support will never vote for McCain, because he is strongly anti-abortion; the choice of VP will make no difference. On the other hand, millions of voters in the later primaries backed Hillary Clinton as the Great White Hope against Barack Obama, not because they wanted a female candidate. These voters, for whom race trumps gender, rejected Obama in the primaries and will reject him again in November, also regardless of the VP nominees. McCain had them at "hello." The trouble for the GOP is that for every voter who doesn't want an African-American to become president, there is another one who doesn't a woman in line for the presidency.

The more fair-minded voters will judge Sarah Palin on how she performs in the campaign, especially at the crucial debate with Joe Biden. If she can avoid any blunders or gaffes, she will be a net asset to the Republican ticket.

If the McCain-Palin ticket wins, and Vice President Palin can avoid misspelling "potato" and blowing any other grade-school questions, she will outshine Dan Quayle. Even if she does not have the big time policy-making influence of Dick Cheney, she will be adequate for the largely ceremonial duties of the vice president.

But in the unlikely event that John McCain (at 72, the oldest person to become president (4)) is unable to complete his term of office, we will all learn the hard way if Sarah Palin is really prepared to become the 45th President of the United States.

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(*) At the time Franklin D Roosevelt was nominated for vice president by the Democrats in 1920, he had been a state senator and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The fact that he was the eponomous cousin and nephew (by marriage) of President Theodore Roosevelt may have helped secure the nomination.

(1) Rep. William E Miller of Lockport, NY, was the running-mate of Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964. After losing the election, Miller became a spokesman for a credit-card company.

(2) The Ohio senator who ran with NY Governor Thomas E Dewey in 1944, Bricker is best known for his proposal to amend the Constitution to give the states the right to vote on treaties.
(3) Lodge, who lost his Massachusetts senate seat in 1952 to John F Kennedy, served as US Ambassador to the United Nations before being picked for VP by Richard Nixon in 1960.

(4) Ronald Reagan became president at 69 and was 73 when re-elected. If McCain serves two terms, he will be 80 years old when he leaves office.