NOSTALGIA FOR CONTESTED CONVENTIONS.

NOSTALGIA FOR CONTESTED CONVENTIONS. This article today quotes a consultant who expresses a concern that the battle for the Democratic nomination could “drag on for months.” There is a general belief that a prolonged fight for the nomination weakens the eventual nominee. I think this is mistaken. My sister Mary Hockin told me about how she and other Canadians were excited by the recent leadership contest for leader of the Liberal Party in Canada. It took several ballots (the last place finisher in each vote is eliminated on the next vote). With each elimination, the excitement built. This kind of excitement could be stirred up by any American political party that had a contested convention. (Kids, that’s the way it used to be when I was a boy. Contested conventions were tremendously exciting. I even got to see two of them. My parents got their first television set belatedly in 1952 to watch the conventions. Many of the conventions were held in Chicago because of the convenient railroad connections for delegates, and my parents had each seen several of them.)