From GOP Convention: Media making it tough for MN delegates.
Bob Collins, 8/13/96

If the Republicans have their way, the days of welfare as we know it are over , the days of the Democrats are over. And the days of political conventions where delegates dress up as elephants and behave like,well, conventioneers are gone forever too.

Being an alternate delegate is a tough job. If regular delegates can't perform their duty to provide fresh scrubbed enthusiasm for speaker after speaker .it's the alternate's job to supply it .. (608) "my job is to sit here and watch these people walking back and forth.I'm trying to figure out where they're coming from and where they're going. One lady told me they were going to the rest room.but I can't believe there's that much room in the rest room. So there must be someplace else they go."

Bill Cantwell of Kenosha Wisconsin has seen the backsides of some of the most powerful people in the Republican Party. Alternates are shoved to the back of the hall to await the summon from a seated delegate who can't take it anymore. No delegate can leave a seat without giving credentials to an alternate. The party doesn't want the people at home to see empty seats. With hundreds of people to block the view, an alternate doesn't have a prayer of knowing who's speaking or what they're saying. Still, they're expected to stand and applaud at the right moments.

Reporters outnumber delegates 7 to 1 And the system the Party uses to allow access to the floor encourages something just short of political violence. Reporters are given 30 minutes on the floor , to get what they need, and get out. The system encourages reporters to jump over delegates like a shopping spree in search of an inteview with a delegate who'll probably say the speech she just didn't hear.was great.

Theresa Vaughn chairs the Republican Party in Minnesota's 8th District. She gave up her seat to an alternate because the jostling on the floor was too much. (12:15..I just question what is the results of all of this everyone is talking all at once including someone from the podium. How much can you get out of all of this?)

From alternate alley, the delegates rely on huge TV screens to see the speakers. When Arne Carlson appeared on tape, most of the delegation didn't know he wasn't really there.

(12:41 "was he taped? I thought he was up there. (he was on tape) Was he? Oh my gosh." (tight edit)

Minnesota's delegates complained to national party officials that reporters should get out of the way. Occasionally, the convention chair bangs the gavel and shouts, "the seargeant at arms will clear the aisles." Nobody's listening, not the delegates,not the reporters and not the outnumbered seargeant at arms. It's not as though chaos is new to conventions.In the past, it was the delegates who jumped over each other.dressed in elephant outfits and behaving as if the 30 minute speech from the Secretary of State of Maine had just liberated them from the shackles of dignity. Turning aside the complaints, Party officials have told each state's delegation , the old days are gone.. Don Zahalka of Oshkosh blames that on the reporters too.

(1008).when you get that many people with cameras and microphones, you're gonna behave better. You're gonna wear a jacket and tie and instead of shorts you're gonna wear trousers and the media has done to spoil it than anyone else. (questions).you notice the media runs around though without coats and without ties.ties open. They can do that because they're on the other end of the camera and the other end of the telephone. It's not fair.

(1049) With the top of the ticket already decided, this convention could probably be held in about 4 hours. But conventions aren't about electing a ticket anymore...they're about projecting an image to as many people as possible for as long as possible . and the tools for that a re four days...reporters... and delegates.