Open conventions

So Obama finally made it. And almost three months before the two conventions, we already know who the Democratic and Republican nominees will be. So, what's the point now of viewing the conventions on television, except maybe to watch the candidates' acceptance speeches?

'Twas not always thus.

In 1952, the Democrats needed three ballots to nominate Adlai Stevenson. The first ballot ran as follows:

Adlai Stevenson (Illinois governor)	273
Estes Kefauver (Tennessee senator)	340
Richard B. Russell (Georgia senator)	268
W. Averell Harriman	123 1/2
Alben W. Barkley (Vice President)	48 1/2
Robert S. Kerr (Oklahoma senator)	65
Paul A. Dever (Massachusetts governor)	37 1/2
Hubert Humphrey (Minnesota senator)	26
J. William Fulbright (Arkansas senator)	22
Miscellaneous	26 1/2

Although Sen. Kefauver led at the end of the first ballot, and again at the end of the second ballot, Averell Harriman, diplomat and cabinet member under Truman, and future New York governor, then threw his support to Adlai Stevenson, who ended up finally winning a majority of the delegates on the third ballot, and becoming the Democratic nominee.

Now that was exciting!

This 1952 wheeling and dealing, the politics of the "smoke-filled room," was tame, however, compared with the Democratic convention of 1924. Under the two-thirds rule then in effect, the delegates required 103 ballots to nominate a non-entity, John W. Davis, who then went on to be defeated in November by the charismatic Calvin Coolidge.

That was old fashioned, back room politics, sweaty, brawling, sleep-deprived gatherings of the party faithful. Even in 1952, only a few states held presidential primary elections. The delegates from most states were picked by the party leaders within that state, similar to the superdelegates of this year's race. A state's governor often was nominated at the convention as a "favorite son," commanding the loyalty of his entire delegation, with the expectation that he would be able to win concessions, to the advantage of himself and/or his state, for delivering the votes of his delegation.

Governor Earl Warren, favorite son from California at the 1952 Republican convention, threw his state's votes to Eisenhower at the end of the first ballot, putting Ike over the top. After the election, strangely enough, Warren was nominated as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The party was still viewed, to a large extent, as a private club, a club that proposed a nominee to the nation's voters, and worked for his election. Today, the parties are viewed more as an official part of the election procedure, almost governmental bodies. Voters today demand the right to help choose the delegates, even if they otherwise have no interest in the party and its affairs, and may even end up supporting the opposing party in the general election.

This evolutionary change has both its good and its bad aspects. What is beyond question, however, is that nominating conventions today are far less exciting than they were a few decades ago.