Convention Moments

While the political conventions are a year or more away, the pundits keep beating the drum with their prognostications. Looking back there are several convention "moments" that come to mind:
Thomas E. Dewey had led the Republican ticket to defeat in both 1944 to FDR and in 1948 losing in an upset to Truman. So at the 1952 convention the silver tongued Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois was holding the gavel and as he looked down at Dewey sitting in the front row he admonished him for taking the Party down the road to defeat. Dewey stared back at him and you can be sure - having been a crime busting D.A. from New York - no one had ever humiliated him like that.

The 1968 Democratic convention was in Chicago - there was much unrest in the country and anti-war sentiment. The protesters outside were met with retaliation by the police and it became very ugly. Inside the hall Gov. Abe Ribicoff of Connecticut was nominating George McGovern when from the lectern Ribicoff looked down at Old Mayor Daley of Chicago and castigated him for the actions of his police. The television coverage of the day did not enable one to read Daley's lips but suffice he was furious.

Then there was 1948 Democratic convention when Sen. Strom Thurmond led the Dixiecrats out of the hall and Truman won  anyway over Dewey in an upset.

At any convention when the delegate from Puerto Rico rose to announce his one vote there was always a round of applause. In 2012 the G.O.P. plans to hold their convention in late August in Tampa, Florida. It can be very hot in Tampa in August and we might expect some heat inside the hall as well. They should sell a lot of iced tea to the partiers.
tjs
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