A convention junkie goes through withdrawal By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle I used to love this time of year, every four years. That's right, I am, or was, a convention junkie. It was, back in the day, the ultimate reality television; live, uncensored, hours at a time when nothing happened but something might. Sort of like - for you modern folks - "Big Brother" with funny hats. We've put these 3,000 people in a large arena with twice as many reporters and camera operators milling around them and balloons ready to drop at any minute. What's going to happen when they start getting ... drunk? All right, when I was a kid, it wasn't drunk. But in those days, you didn't need to drink to sit through a political convention on TV. It was entertaining. Of course, the big reason is that conventions are nothing more these days than the political versions of family reunions. You go every four years and see the people from across the country who believe like you do. But the reason you're there - to pick a presidential candidate - was decided long before, back in February. It wasn't that way in the past, of course. (Man, I'm starting to sound like an old geezer.) As late as 1976, the nomination was still somewhat up for grabs at convention time - remember Ford vs. Reagan? It was a time when procedural votes on Mondays still held meaning as a test of strength for candidates, when the picking of the vice presidential candidate didn't take place until the candidate was nominated. It wasn't a perfect system - any system that gave us a Vice President Spiro Agnew can never be called perfect - but it was much more interesting. Even in years when a convention had to deal with an incumbent president and a lack of drama for the nominations, there were often knock-down, drag-out platform fights. No longer, of course; everything has to be seen as unity and sweetness, all anger devoted toward the bozo from the other party. The first conventions I remember were in 1964, when Barry Goldwater's followers packed the hall and shook their fists at the networks - a sign of the hatred the right wing still has for the media. And then the Democrats, as Lyndon Johnson tried to play down both the battle over civil rights in his own party and the outpouring of support for Bobby Kennedy. By 1968, of course, we had the siege of Chicago, with sessions dragging until 3 to 4 a.m. as the Democrats tore themselves in two and gave the election to Richard Nixon. (A favorite memory: staying up until 3 a.m., then watching the news on Channel 5 with Don Sidney's signoff: "Meditation and the National Anthem, next on 5!") And in 1972, more late-night follies, as McGovernites tossed Richard Daley out on his Picasso statue and nominated everybody lower than Jerry Garcia (who was pretty high in those days) for vice president, any of whom might have worked out better than Thomas Eagleton. There was even drama as late as 1980 from the Republicans, when Ronald Reagan almost ran with Gerry Ford as his vice president, only to dump him for George Bush the elder when Ford - on live TV - got too grabby for power. But no more. And it's affected our campaigns today. For one thing, we don't get to see people come up through the political ranks, as one might watch a baseball minor leaguer progress to the bigs. That's why we stare at modern candidates and wonder who they are. And with nobody known, the emphasis goes to the ones with the most money, who chase others out of the game early - and make the conventions moot. I still have a hope that someday, we'll see a meaningful convention again - a candidate becoming ill (or, heaven forbid, dying) just before the event and all of politics thrown into chaos. Hey, a junkie can dream, can't he? Barrington is news editor for The News-Chronicle. His column appears here Fridays. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected] or call 432-2941.