Lew Uhler and I applied to be Cruz delegates from our shared Congressional District, CA-4. Three names will be selected as delegates from this district by the Cruz campaign in California. I asked Joseph Semprevivo to put in a good word for us, but he’s up to his ass in alligators right now, so we’ll see.
I snuck into the ’64 Convention in San Francisco, and decided to go to the one in ’96, for Dole. My son Brendan was 20 then, and I got him a job as an usher or something. It was in San Diego, and he really didn’t have anything to do, so he mainly screwed around on the beach.
I saw my best friend from high school there, Jack McClenahan. Jack was living in Ojai with his high school sweetheart, Jane, a wonderful woman. I believe at this time he was raising money for the National Park Foundation. The money was somewhat sporadic, I believe, but Jane had a good job, somehow connected to Disney.
So Jack and I palled around the Convention, without accomplishing anything. The one thing I remember is when Jack Kemp was introduced to us as the Vice Presidential candidate. I was probably 25 feet away from him, standing with Jack, and Kemp was all fired up. This was the break he’d been waiting, and working on, for a very long time. I’d never seen a guy as jacked up as he was. I was looking at him, hard, trying to figure out what the hell made this guy tick. I’d never seen him in person before. He noticed me looking at him, and kept looking back at me a few times while he spoke.
Jack thought that was pretty cool. We went to see Dole’s acceptance speech, the opening part of which is poetic. Written by Mark Halperin. Apparently he had an entire speech full of this beautiful language, but the old pros wouldn’t have it. He got the hell out of San Diego, and politics.
So going to Cleveland with Lew and his lovely wife, I’m sure Babbie will be made to feel right at home. I won’t go without her.
reaganproject.com 