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Rappahannock New. Special Writer
In my days as a journalist I went to numerous political conventions, including eight national political gatherings, and quite naturally I have lots of memories associated with that attendance.
In 1972 I was among a group of media folk inadvertently tear gassed at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
In Kansas City in 19761 watched as Ronald Reagan almost beat out incumbent President Gerald Ford for the party nomination.
In 1980 President Jimmy Carter seemed out of sorts at the Democratic convention in New York City. On reflection, I think he knew he was doomed to defeat in November.
But of all the conventions I ever attended, I think the most exciting and electric was the 1978 Virginia Republican convention held at the Richmond Coliseum.
I was part of the working press then and there had been a real dogfight for the nomination for U.S. Senate to succeed William L. Scott, whose name is seldom heard in political circles these days.
The front runner from the beginning had been Richard D. Obenshain, the former party chairman whose conservative leadership had helped build a two-party system in Virginia.
John W. Warner, a former Secretary of the Navy, who was married to actress Elizabeth Taylor at the time, had made great strides in a delegate hunt that took him and his wife around to every area of the state.
Behind them in the chase were Lin wood Holton, who had become the state’s first Republican Governor in 1970, and State Sen. Nathan Miller.
A vivid account of that historic convention is told by Frank Atkinson in his book, “The Dynamic Dominion.” The man who presided over it was Herbert H. Bateman, then a state senator and now a member of Congress, who won praise from all sides for his evenhanded performance.
As I recall, around 9,000 delegates and alternates were on the convention floor, making it in those terms the biggest political convention ever held in the history of the country. It was a long day’s journey into night with all sorts of floor fights over rules, and much balloting.
But the one thing, strangely enough, that I remember more than anything else is the sight of Elizabeth Taylor in a sailor suit leading a throng of
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