I received an email from my good friend DavidM yesterday in which he took me back in time to when he and I were both knee-high to a grasshopper.

He asked me if I remembered the great conventions of the past when the winner was not known in advance.

“Mr. Chairman, the great state of (name the state) proudly casts its (name your number) votes for its favorite son (name your candidate)!

That was the first ballot.

The second ballot was usually a nail-biter, and if no candidate emerged as the winner some back room maneuvering took place and the ultimate deal was struck. The winner would ask the second place finisher to be his running mate, whether or not he liked him.

That was when a convention really meant work for the delegates and not just a gathering of friends to rubber-stamp a decision already known while the delegates party all the time.

The perfect example is the Kennedy-Johnson battle for the nomination in 1960. Neither man liked the other, but somehow they took the election. Most believe it was by fraud in Chicago and the story is that President-elect Kennedy called Richard Nixon to thank him for not contesting the election. Nixon told him he didn’t want to put the country through that ordeal.

Too bad Al Gore didn’t think of the country first in 2000 and kept the good of the country foremost in his mind.

He wasn’t robbed of the election, but he convinced enough people of it that President Bush has had a rough time his whole term.