Dan Rather"ARIZONA SEN. John McCain took to the stage at the Republican Convention and, in a surprise move, announced that he would be proud to be George Bush's running mate, as Vice President Dick Cheney would be stepping aside for health reasons. This latest stunner tops even the jaw-dropping episode at last month's Democratic Convention, when perennial third-party candidate Ralph Nader told delegates there that he was dropping his presidential bid and throwing the full weight of his support behind Democratic nominee John Kerry."
Your reporter is not a betting man. But if he were, he'd happily put the double-wide on the table against chances that you'll see that paragraph at summer's end. And I'd put down at least even money against the prospect of seeing anything that resembles real, I-didn't-expect-it-to-happen-but-it-happened-all-the-same news come out of this year's political conventions.
At the 1980 Democratic Convention in New York City, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had run against incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the primaries, lost a floor-vote bid to strip enough delegates from Carter to take the nomination. That distant memory marks the last time any big news happened at one of these party gatherings. Since then, the nominating conventions have made a long slide from genuine news events to full-blown infomercials.
EXERCISE MACHINE
But maybe you are among those who like to watch these shows. Maybe you even favour the "gavel-to-gavel" coverage still available on cable television. And maybe you also like to see Christie Brinkley and Chuck Norris extol the virtues of a certain exercise machine. Maybe you're a fan of the products offered by TV marketing entrepreneur Ron Popeil. Hey -- we all need to find ways to get some sleep.
What has become clear is that political conventions are in most ways no different from conventions of dentists or insurance salespersons -- with one important exception: You won't find any conventions, anywhere, with more rich people in attendance. Ever wondered who all those people are with seats in the convention hall? Most of them, at least those not in the nosebleed seats, have raised a lot of money for the candidates and/or the party, or are the friends and family of these people. What do they expect from the conventions? Maybe they just haven't figured out yet that there are bigger bangs for their entertainment buck.
Speaking of bucks, it takes a lot of them to put on these infomercials -- an estimated $65 million for this year's Republican Convention in New York City and an estimated $39 million for the Democratic Convention in Boston. And these figures don't even include the costs to the host cities for providing security and all the other things a city has to do when dignitaries, VIPs and elected officials start pouring into town by the Lincoln Continental-full.
All of which brings to mind another fantasy news item:
"Citing the extraordinary amount of money it takes to stage political conventions, and the fact that nothing newsworthy ever really happens anymore at these multi-day extravaganzas, the Democratic Party has announced that it will take the tens of millions of dollars earmarked for its convention and, instead, donate the money to the poor. 'We see this as our way of emphasising core Democratic values of helping the downtrodden,' said a Democratic spokesman, explaining the move."
Or how about if the Republicans were to do the same, so that "Republicans can 'illustrate, in the most meaningful way possible, the core GOP belief that private charity is the best way to bring relief to America's poor.'"? Your reporter is not a betting man. But if you're betting that you'll ever see those stories, he'll be glad to take your money.
Dan Rather is a television news anchor.
