Statistikhengst
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #1
There is a reason for why I am doing this.
We are talking about the middle of August, 1956, at the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Chicago, Illinois.
At issue here is not the balloting for the Presidential nomination, but rather, the Vice-Presidential nomination, because:
1.) It's the last time we saw such a suspenseful ballot for the VP - and it really was a cliffhanger.
2.) It was just the second time that the national conventions were completely televised (part of 1948 was as well, but not in it's entirety).
3.) There are names you are going to see that are part of what some people would call part of American "royalty", names of families with a long history in US politics. In fact, 3 of those four names that remained on the VP 2nd-ballot (there were 13 on the 1st ballot, including Lyndon Johson, who got exactly one delegate) should be very familiar names to most of us:
Estes Kefauver (TN), ended up getting the nomination for VP
John F. Kennedy (MA), almost ended up getting the nomination, was a darned close 2nd place.
Hubert Humphrey (MN), distant third.
Al Gore, Sr. (TN), very distant fourth.
The reason this happened is because Adlai E. Stevenson III, once again the Democratic nominee (as he also was in 1952) broke with tradition and in a totally unexpected surprise announcement, said that not he, but rather, the delegates at the convention, would select the Vice-Presidential nominee. And that ended up being the high-point of the Convention.
Before the video, here are two screenshots of the balloting (2nd ballot, starting as the shifts began):
Early on, Kennedy was leading. And then, the two were tied, at 666 (lol!), but neither had an absolute majority (688), and so the manuevering began, which you will see on the video.
At the end, John Kennedy, who would go on to win the 1960 presidential election four years later, spoke to the 1956 Convention and recommended that Estes Kefauver then be nominated by acclamation. Hillary Clinton did something similar with Barack Obama at the 2008 DEM National Convention.
But wow: three big family names, all in 1956, for the DEM VP balloting:
Kennedy (a name that has now been in politics for 60 years, President, AG, presidential candidate, Senator)
Gore - Al Gore, Sr. was, of course, Vice President Al Gore's father. I bet most people did not know that not one, but rather, two different Al Gores have been on the ballot for Vice President in our history.
Humphrey - who ended up being our Vice President in 1965.
Here's the video (about 32 minutes), which shows the key moments in the roll-call vote:
This is the only time in the last sixty years where the balloting for the Vice-Presidential nomination for any of the major parties was up in the air. And in watching it, you can see that people were not really used to being in the TV age - they acted differently before the camera, if you ask me.
Of course, sitting President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-KS), whom I consider to be one of our very best presidents of all time, with Richard M. Nixon once again as his running-mate, handily defeated the Stevenson/Kefauver ticket, but even this defeat set the stage for some very, very interesting developments in the 1960s, to say the least: Nixon and Kennedy, both of whom were on the VP ballots for their respective conventions in 1956, would go up against each other as presidential nominees in 1960 and both would win the presidency at some time in the 1960s (Kennedy in '60, Nixon in '68). And Humphrey would go on to become the Vice-President under Johnson 8 years after this convention, in '64. Humphrey would end up being the DEM standard-bearer against Nixon in 1968.
So either way, this is a moment out of our past worth noting. And when people complain about current royalty like the names "Bush" and "Clinton", don't be fooled: we have had this type of royalty all along. It's not a new phenomenon.
FYI and FYE.
-Stat
We are talking about the middle of August, 1956, at the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Chicago, Illinois.
At issue here is not the balloting for the Presidential nomination, but rather, the Vice-Presidential nomination, because:
1.) It's the last time we saw such a suspenseful ballot for the VP - and it really was a cliffhanger.
2.) It was just the second time that the national conventions were completely televised (part of 1948 was as well, but not in it's entirety).
3.) There are names you are going to see that are part of what some people would call part of American "royalty", names of families with a long history in US politics. In fact, 3 of those four names that remained on the VP 2nd-ballot (there were 13 on the 1st ballot, including Lyndon Johson, who got exactly one delegate) should be very familiar names to most of us:
Estes Kefauver (TN), ended up getting the nomination for VP
John F. Kennedy (MA), almost ended up getting the nomination, was a darned close 2nd place.
Hubert Humphrey (MN), distant third.
Al Gore, Sr. (TN), very distant fourth.
The reason this happened is because Adlai E. Stevenson III, once again the Democratic nominee (as he also was in 1952) broke with tradition and in a totally unexpected surprise announcement, said that not he, but rather, the delegates at the convention, would select the Vice-Presidential nominee. And that ended up being the high-point of the Convention.
Before the video, here are two screenshots of the balloting (2nd ballot, starting as the shifts began):
Early on, Kennedy was leading. And then, the two were tied, at 666 (lol!), but neither had an absolute majority (688), and so the manuevering began, which you will see on the video.
At the end, John Kennedy, who would go on to win the 1960 presidential election four years later, spoke to the 1956 Convention and recommended that Estes Kefauver then be nominated by acclamation. Hillary Clinton did something similar with Barack Obama at the 2008 DEM National Convention.
But wow: three big family names, all in 1956, for the DEM VP balloting:
Kennedy (a name that has now been in politics for 60 years, President, AG, presidential candidate, Senator)
Gore - Al Gore, Sr. was, of course, Vice President Al Gore's father. I bet most people did not know that not one, but rather, two different Al Gores have been on the ballot for Vice President in our history.
Humphrey - who ended up being our Vice President in 1965.
Here's the video (about 32 minutes), which shows the key moments in the roll-call vote:
This is the only time in the last sixty years where the balloting for the Vice-Presidential nomination for any of the major parties was up in the air. And in watching it, you can see that people were not really used to being in the TV age - they acted differently before the camera, if you ask me.
Of course, sitting President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-KS), whom I consider to be one of our very best presidents of all time, with Richard M. Nixon once again as his running-mate, handily defeated the Stevenson/Kefauver ticket, but even this defeat set the stage for some very, very interesting developments in the 1960s, to say the least: Nixon and Kennedy, both of whom were on the VP ballots for their respective conventions in 1956, would go up against each other as presidential nominees in 1960 and both would win the presidency at some time in the 1960s (Kennedy in '60, Nixon in '68). And Humphrey would go on to become the Vice-President under Johnson 8 years after this convention, in '64. Humphrey would end up being the DEM standard-bearer against Nixon in 1968.
So either way, this is a moment out of our past worth noting. And when people complain about current royalty like the names "Bush" and "Clinton", don't be fooled: we have had this type of royalty all along. It's not a new phenomenon.
FYI and FYE.
-Stat
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