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Conventional wisdom … then and now …
Twenty years ago this summer, I drove down to Atlanta for my first and, thus far, only national political convention - the Democrats’ coronation of Michael Dukakis (that’s him in the picture).
I was a political reporter for the High Point Enterprise in an age before anyone had ever heard of the Internet. High Point had a decent chunk of representation in North Carolina’s delegation. Atlanta’s proximity made for a pretty cheap trip at a time when gasoline was a little over a buck a gallon.
As I watched the coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention Monday night, several key differences came to mind.
1) We sure as heck didn’t have anyone as talented as singer John Legend to entertain us. I know there were musical guests, but danged if I can remember a single big name among them.
2) Former N.C. Sen. Rachel Gray, D-Guilford, told me before the convention to expect big things from the governor of Arkansas, a guy by the name of Bill Clinton. Clinton loomed large, all right. His speech went on and on and on until, I swear, around 1992, when the country decided to make him president just to get him off the stage.
(ok, that might have been a slight exaggeration).
3) I completely missed the biggest story of the convention - a videotape involving convention attendee and then-Brat Pack star Rob Lowe and two women engaged in activities of a decidedly non-family-entertainment nature. That seems even weirder now because Lowe made such a great speechwriter as Sam Seaborn for the fictitious President Jed Bartlet more than 10 years later on television’s “The West Wing.”
4) Back to music for a minute … There’s a rumor going around the Internet and repeated on CNN Monday night that Bruce Springsteen may play at the convention on Thursday night, when presumptive nominee Barack Obama will address the delegates.
The closest I came to seeing Springsteen in Atlanta during the summer of ‘88 was watching a bulked-up Joe Piscopo walk around the floor of the Omni with an attractive blonde. Piscopo had made a name for himself in those days on television’s “Saturday Night Live,” where he occasionally parodied Springsteen.
(yeah, I’m a Boss fan. I remember stupid stuff like that).
5) My clearest memory of the convention actually was work-related. I stayed in the same hotel as the North Carolina delegation. We began each morning with a breakfast meeting in which the delegates listened to inspirational words from folks like former Gov. Jim Hunt and former Attorney General Rufus Edmisten.
This was incredibly convenient for me because the High Point Enterprise was an afternoon paper. I had a copy deadline of 10:30 a.m., meaning we could hit the streets each afternoon with a fresh take on what local delegates had to say as the convention progressed.
On about the third morning of the convention, I sat at the breakfast meeting, feverishly taking notes for the story I would file an hour later. I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my then-publisher Randall Terry, who was a member of the N.C. delegation.
“Lemme have the keys to your room,” Terry said.
“Pardon?” I asked.
“I’ve been up all night. Need to lie down. Lemme have your keys.”
I was 30 years old with a young wife and two babies at home. I needed my job a whole lot more than I needed that hotel room.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “But … um … I have to go up there in a little while and write my story for today’s paper.”
Terry gave me a look that would have stopped Bill Clinton in mid-sentence. Then he sighed and walked away mumbling.
I don’t know what Democrats in 2008 hope to accomplish this week, but I managed to file my story that day and hold onto my job.
That’s my idea of a successful convention.
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