Great Moments from Democratic National Conventions

Barack Obama made history as the first black man to become a nominee for President of the United States. Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to try to become the nominee for President of the United States. After a somewhat slow start (virtually nothing happened the first day), the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver rocked in the end. Hillary put party before self, Clinton assured us that Obama is, in fact, ready to serve as President, Biden's back story literally brought some of the audience to tears, as did the appearance of a cancer battling Senator Ted Kennedy. As expected, Obama fired up the audience as he accepted his party's nomination and to the last eight years of Republican failed policies declared, "Enough!" So what if he's a rock star? He can't be popular and effective? Rock stars are cool, interesting, admired, and can motivate the public. We like our rock stars. Politicians have constituents, rock stars have fans and groupies. Being popular does not diminish his value, his qualifications, or his vision.

With all of this history-making going on, I couldn't help but reminisce about previous Democratic National Conventions. Here is my short list of memorable DNC moments since 1980.

1980- Senator Edward M. Kennedy really wanted President Carter's delegates. After he lost his challenge he went on to deliver one of the Top 100 speeches (according to American Rhetoric) in history and displayed his great love of the Democratic Party as he closed his speech with, "For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." At the 2008 DNC in Denver, Kennedy, in only his second appearance after surgery for brain cancer told the crowd that "nothing -- nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight." We'll never fully know the effort it took for him to be there to support the party he has loved and served for so many years. Time will tell if Hillary Clinton can muster that same long-term unselfish devotion to the Democratic Party.

1984 - Jesse Jackson was fired up as usual, but the surprise for me was Mario Cuomo's very emotional speech where he said, "We believe as Democrats, that a society as blessed as ours, the most affluent democracy in the world's history, one that can spend trillions on instruments of destruction, ought to be able to help the middle class in its struggle, ought to be able to find work for all who can do it, room at the table, shelter for the homeless, care for the elderly and infirm, and hope for the destitute. And we proclaim as loudly as we can the utter insanity of nuclear proliferation and the need for a nuclear freeze, if only to affirm the simple truth that peace is better than war because life is better than death."

As a woman, I was particularly pleased at the history-making nomination of Geraldine Ferraro as the Vice Presidential candidate. Up to that point, the Democratic National Convention had not had much to do with women. In fact, only one woman had ever given the keynote speech - Barbara Jordan in 1976 - "we believe in equality for all and privileges for none." To be fair, that whole issue with Ferraro's finances and her husband's finances overshadowed Walter Mondale's campaign (John McCain might want to take note as it seems Ms. Palin's National Enquirer-worthy family drama might do the same). Yet, to have a woman on the ticket put the first cracks in the glass ceiling that Hillary Clinton mentioned so often. Hillary may have put 18 million cracks in it (in reference to the number of Americans who voted for her in the Democratic primary elections), but Barbara Jordan, Geraldine Ferraro, and Ann Richards helped build the ladder that allowed Clinton to reach that high.

In 1988 Bill Clinton's 33 minute long opening night address got applause at only one point - when he said, "and finally" as he was concluding. Four years later he returned to accept his party's nomination and seemed to have had some public speaking lessons as he poked fun at himself when he told the crowd he wanted to finish that speech he started four years previously.

Ann Richard's speech was highly critical of Bush (41, not 43, although I'm certain she would criticize W as well) "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." My favorite quote came at the beginning of her speech where she may have helped plant a seed for Hillary Clinton's amazing run for the presidential nomination in 2008. "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."

1992 brought us Elizabeth Glaser's moving speech about the need for AIDS research. "A thousand points of light just wasn't enough: My house has been dark for too long."

For me, the highlight of the 1996 DNC was Christopher Reeve's speech about medical research where he defined family values to mean that "we're all family, that we all have value."

I'm surprised the Al Gore/Tipper Gore kiss after his nomination at the 2000 DNC wasn't nominated for best kiss at the MTV movie awards, especially since cynics believed it was "acted." At least Gore would later earn a best documentary Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize isn't too shabby either! And they called Clinton the comeback kid.

The 2004 convention was notable for putting Barack Obama on our radar and like Clinton before him, he would return to the DNC four years later as his party's nominee. The most memorable speech was by a speaker heard, but not seen, when producer Don Mischer's F-word laden diatribe was broadcast over his radio when the balloons scheduled to drop, didn't.