Bob_Grip's Blog

Twenty years ago, WALA sent me and a team of newspeople to cover both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.  It was part of a group effort by the company that owned us at the time, Knight Ridder.  I anchored our coverage, live by satellite (no mean feat back then), introducing stories put together by our reporters, photographers and producers.  I also selected sound bites from the various featured speakers to be played during our late newscast, and the following morning during a wrap-up I taped and fed back to Mobile.

The Democrats met in Atlanta at the Omni as they prepared to nominate Michael Dukakis, the Massachusetts Governor.  It was my first time covering a national political convention and it was an exciting time for me.  Our group (all the Knight Ridder television stations) had a limited number of "floor passes", which as the name suggests, would give you access to the convention floor and the delegates.  We had to share them in 15 minutes increments, which barely gave you enough time to squeeze past the hoard of delegates and reporters, say hello to someone, and fight your way back.  The rest of the time, we had seats in our news perch, high above and to the right of the podium.

Say you don't remember the Democratic convention of 1988?  Sure you do, or at least have heard of what happened there.  

For example, I remember the late Ann Richards, then state treasurer and soon to be Governor of Texas, using her most pronounced Texas drawl to refer to George Herbert Walker Bush as the man born with a "silver foot in his mouth".  And then there was the young Arkansas Governor who droned on for so long, that he got the biggest cheer when he said, "In conclusion...". That was of course, Bill Clinton, who probably saved his political career by going on the Tonight Show to talk with Johnny Carson about it. I honestly don't remember what Dukakis said during his acceptance speech.  That may have been a sign right there.

By the way, the 1988 Democratic convention was the place where Joe Biden received exactly 2 votes for the nomination.

The following month, all of us took the shorter drive to New Orleans, for the Republican National Convention and the nomination of the current President's father.  As opposed to the Democratic convention, where the WALA crew was scattered in rundown hotel rooms across downtown Atlanta, in New Orleans we stayed at the Hilton on Riverwalk.  Much nicer accommodations!

This was the convention where George H.W. Bush unveiled his "Thousand Points of Light", and coined the phrase that led to his demise 4 years later, "Read my lips..no new taxes!"

It was during the Republican convention that one member of the Knight Ridder staff brought our attention to an article in a financial magazine that quoted the president of the corporation saying Knight Ridder was thinking about selling off its television division.  It is probably why, when the convention was over, somebody from corporate invited all of us (and there were a lot of us from all the Knight Ridder stations) to "Breakfast at Brennan's".  The bill must have been tremendous, but a meal never tasted as good.