To me the sad part of all this is that future generations---and even this one, to some extent, do not and will not remember what a real covention was. It was not a staged Bway production. It meant something.

As one interviewee on a radio program said--a writer, I believe---"...in those days it worked because there was dealing going on by the power brokers who knew what was going on---now we expect the lowest common denominator to elect someone just like them because they like his TV persona. The world is too complicated for that".

I watched CSpan2 for a while on Monday---Stevenson, Ike, JFK, etc; at conventions. That was intelligence and oratory---I was not an Ike supporter, but in hindsight his railing against the military industrial complex (and him a general) was so prescient. Did not help, sadly. And Stevenson---he spoke ideas---but, unfortunately, we are back to the denominator thing I spoke of---hurt him too


Bill Hahn