Now that the Democratic and Republican conventions are history, it looks like the long road that leads to November and Election Day may be crowded with political traffic on TV and in newspapers. It's not new, of course, and my memories go back to when I was a boy and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for reelection.
I was in elementary school at the time and our teacher tried to get us into a discussion. He asked us some questions, but the topic never got going. In those days it was radio, and there was no television, so maybe that had something to do with it.
As I aged and voted and became a newspaper reporter, and eventually a press secretary for a prominent political boss, and then a press aide for an elected official, I became quite involved in politics.
In any event, I have many political and governmental memories.
When names like Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln first appeared on presidential ballots, one wonders how many voters sensed greatness or felt indifference or boredom or disdain.
With such an enormous impact to be made on this country and this planet by the new president, one could even chuckle at the thought that many of us evidently attach more enthusiasm to the World Series or the Super Bowl or favorite shows on television.
Of course, the relentless bombardment usually runs from Labor Day to Election Day, of political commercials on television and the endless flurry of campaign material in our mail boxes.
Nevertheless, our system remains one of the wonders of the world because it works.
On overwhelmingly lesser levels, be it voting for the school board or mayor or council members or community association trustees or social organization officers or whatever, the same thread runs through our democratic fabric – the person or concept that gets the most votes, for better or for worse, wins. And the passage of time is generally the only sure way of determining whether it was for better or for worse.
As a journalist, you periodically have the opportunity to cover politics rather closely. Some of the images remain with you.
I remember standing on a press vantage point along the Grand Central Parkway in New York and watching President John F. Kennedy's slow-moving motorcade. He was sitting in the rear seat of an open limo and waving and smiling to crowds on both sides of the parkway. He was en route from Manhattan to the airport that would eventually be named in his memory – JFK.
I met President Gerald Ford in a reception room in a sports arena on Long Island where he had just given a campaign speech. When we shook hands, the first thought that came to my mind was that he seemed too small to have played center on a University of Michigan football team.
Waiting along with other reporters for the arrival of the then First Lady, Jackie Kennedy, I was in a roped off and sealed area of LaGuardia Airport in New York. Her elegance and beauty in person were striking, and we shouted questions at her from behind the ropes. She smiled but didn't respond as she boarded the private plane that would take her back to Washington.
There's my remembrance of watching then New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, one of the world's richest men and he seemed so down to earth, sweating and smiling and shaking hands, with his white dress shirt unbuttoned and walking barefoot along the crowded beaches of Long Island during an election campaign.
I also remember former New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato calling and waving for me to come to him, and I thought that perhaps I was going to get some kind of a scoop. Instead, he shook my hand, asked how I was, and handed me two D'Amato car bumper stickers.
I didn't have a particular liking for the arena of politics, but you went where you were assigned, of course, and in the long run it wasn't difficult to become fascinated or annoyed by following the doings of professional politicians.
When we moved to New Jersey and our development was small and growing, I took my first shot at public office and ran, successfully, for our community association board. After a few years, I bailed out and returned to "private life," relieved of the conflict between wanting to do good and wanting to avoid devoting too much time to being in the middle of community hassles.
I recall what writer and TV personality William Buckley said, when running on a lark for mayor of New York, and a reporter asked him what he would do if he won. He replied, "I'll demand a recount!"
If you're thinking of running for office at any level and with any organization, be careful and keep this thought in mind: You may win.
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