Ghosts of past landslides party with Democrats

For all its spectacle and optimism, the Democratic convention in Denver is haunted.

Ghosts of elections past are walking the Pepsi Center's corridors this week, greeting old friends, even holding a luncheon.

Years ago they won the prize that Barack Obama will claim on Thursday. But their names and deeds are dusty artifacts to young Americans, and to many older voters, they conjure up campaign debacles that helped Republicans paint the Democratic Party as too liberal, wimpy and egg-headed.

George McGovern. Walter Mondale. Michael Dukakis.

Even one who made it to the White House, Jimmy Carter, is largely remembered for his helplessness during the Iranian hostage crisis, and his lopsided loss to Ronald Reagan 28 years ago.

Two younger, more recent nominees _ Al Gore and John Kerry _ suffered painfully narrow losses to President George W. Bush, personifying Democrats' frustration during a time of Republican domination of Congress and the White House.

All six men are in Denver this week. They are standing in the shadow of the party's one surviving undefeated champion, Bill Clinton.

Rarely if ever have so many losing nominees attended a national party convention, those quadrennial extravaganzas of blather, hoopla and hopefulness, where mentions of past defeats, like discouraging words on the range, are seldom heard.

The Republicans have just one surviving one-and-done nominee, Bob Dole, from 1996. The Democrats have five: McGovern (1972), Mondale (1984), Dukakis (1988), Gore (2000) and Kerry (2004).

Both parties have one living former president who lost his re-election bid: Carter, elected in 1976 and defeated in 1980; and George H.W. Bush, elected in 1988, defeated in '92.

Here in Denver, convention-goers are too polite, and too focused on Obama's prospects, to give a cold shoulder to their vanquished nominees, three of whom are in their 80s. But they are not splashing spotlights on them, either.

"I'm going to hang around and walk through the convention hall and shake as many hands as seem to be friendly," said McGovern, 86.

"Most of the people I meet are very warm," he said. "They say I got them into politics.... Not the young ones, of course."

Dukakis, 74, said he will sit with the Massachusetts delegation, but only as a guest.

"Losers are not delegates," he said in his familiar deadpan. "They invite us, we wave, everybody cheers, we sit down." On a brighter note, he added, "they do give us five extra tickets."

Carter, 83, was briefly introduced to the crowd on Monday, and Kerry _ who helped launch Obama's career by picking him as the 2004 keynote speaker _ will speak Wednesday. Gore, winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global climate change, will speak Thursday.

McGovern, Mondale and Dukakis will have much lower profiles, away from the big blue podium. That will give party veterans plenty of time to reminisce about the old days with them.

That is, if they really want to. McGovern and Mondale carried one state each in their landslide losses. Dukakis claimed 10 _ after leading the current president's father by 17 percentage points in the late summer.

Twenty years later, he still laments his failure to respond more forcefully and quickly to Republican attacks, a lesson he believes Obama has absorbed. "I think he's more ready for it, clearly by far, than I was," said Dukakis.

A highlight for the trio will be a Wednesday luncheon honoring McGovern, hosted by the Denver Forum, which champions "the dialogue of democracy." Mondale and Dukakis will attend, as will former senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Gary Hart of Colorado.

They know about losing tough races, too, as do most politicians who stay in the business long enough.

McGovern said he is flattered by the luncheon. In a four-day lovefest centered on a 47-year-old first-term senator, he said, it's nice that Democrats also recognize a former standard-bearer who now is "sort of an antique."