When you've seen them all since 1972, well, you feel a little older and maybe a little wiser.
"The conventions sure have changed," says Alex Hurtado, a Utah delegate this year - and in 1972 in Miami, 1976 in Kansas City, 1980 in Detroit, 1984 in Dallas, 1988 in New Orleans, 1992 in Houston and 1996 in San Diego.In 1972 in Miami, Richard Nixon was ahead of George McGovern, the Vietnam War was ending for U.S. troops and while television was big - "they carried most of the convention live" - people still looked to newspapers to get the behind-the-scenes news, recalls Hurtado, a real-estate investor/part-time political war horse from Ogden.
Much has been said about how scripted this Republican convention - only three hours a night with only one hour of prime time network coverage. Short, punchy speeches - Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt got only eight minutes Thursday night - with video clips or live off-site feeds to break up the talking heads at the podium. Even Bob Dole's wife, Elizabeth, took a portable microphone into the audience Wednesday night like a daytime talk show host to speak about her husband, stopping to point out important people from Dole's past planted for effect.
Still, Leavitt liked what he saw this week. "I may be feeling the enthusiasm of the moment, but I think this may well go down in history as the most successful Republican convention ever," said Leavitt.
The convention's pace wasn't MTV, not yet anyway. But it also wasn't like even eight years ago when then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, giving the Democrat's keynote address in Atlanta, was allowed to drone on for an hour. Rep. Susan Molinari's keynote address Tuesday, by comparison, was about 20 mintues - and up until Dole's acceptance speech Thursday night - the longest of the convention.
And there's a new brood in San Diego that wasn't even around four years ago. Upstairs in the San Diego Convention Center a long row of more than 20 radio talk shows are going morning and afternoon - Oliver North, Morton Downey and many more. They aren't in glass cages, the interviews are live with delegates and others crowded around, cheering or booing depending on what is being said.
It was all too much for ABC's Ted Koppel and his Nightline news magazine. He packed up and left Tuesday, saying there was no real news at the convention, just a public relations show for Republicans. Kopple said he probably wouldn't attend the Democratic convention in Chicago in two weeks, either.
Just about everything is different at the convention today, says Hurtado. "Back in 1972 and even later, the delegates, I must say, weren't very politically savvy. A TV guy or newspaper guy would grab them and ask them something and they'd say, `Ah, I'm just from Iowa, I don't know, I don't have an opinion.' Now I listen to these interviews on the floor and every (delegate) is analyzing what's going on, how this guy did in a speech or what the latest poll means. These delegates actually speak in 20-second sound bites. It's amazing."
Political consultant/lobbyist Ron Fox went to his first convention in 1972 and has attended three since. He's the delegate this year who organized the Utah delegation's stay in San Diego. Fox is a scholar of political conventions - he can cite the year and city of each, starting with the Republicans' in 1868 in Philidelphia.
"This convention is different in one big way," says Fox. "We had a theme for each day, a message. And I think it is getting out. Also, there was real suspense about the vice presidential pick. Jack Kemp, that came out of the blue and has been well received and energized this group from the first" day delegates arrived, last Saturday.
While Fox likes the small San Diego hall - "No one can get lost in here" - he was disappointed about the hall's video work. The two large screens behind the seapker's podium couldn't be seen by many delegates, and only smaller televisions were placed in obscure places in the hall. The result was many delegates and press could hear the speakers, but could barely see them or couldn't see them at all.
"All conventions from the first are about two things: picking a candidate and getting a message out," said Fox. Dole was no surprise as the candidate, and Fox thinks Republicans succeeded well in getting out the message.
Hurtado started his inside political work in 1968, helping Richard Nixon win California, Colorado and other Western states. He was even higher in the campaign in Nixon's 1972 effort and was in on the ground floor with Ronald Reagan 1980 campaign.
He feels good about what he's seen behind the scenes in this convention. "I'm seeing a number of the old Reagan campaign guys back again. In 1992 the George Bush guys were all over the place - never focused. It was a mess (and Bush lost). I don't see any of those guys in San Diego."
But Hurtado does miss some of the spontaneity of the old conventions. You may have already known who was going to win the nominations - each state's conventions or primaries telling you that. But at least there may have been some controversy in the speeches, floor demonstrations or even protesters outside the hall.