Walt Whitman

On a Democratic National Convention of the 1850s.

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“The meanest kind of bawling and blowing office-holders, office-seekers, pimps, malignants, conspirators, murderers, fancy-men, custom-house clerks, contractors, kept-editors, spaniels well-trained to carry and fetch, jobbers, infidels, dis-unionists, terrorists, mail-riflers, slave-catchers, pushers of slavery, creatures of the President, creatures of would-be presidents, spies, bribers, compromisers, lobbyers, sponges, ruin'd sports, expell'd gamblers, policy-backers, monte-dealers, duelists, carriers of conceal'd weapons, deaf men, pimpled men, scarr'd inside with vile disease, gaudy outside with gold chain made from the people's money and harlot's money twisted together; crawling, serpentine men, the lousy combinings and born freedom-sellers of the earth.”

One of the most influential American poets - If not American in general - ever, Whitman (1819 -1892) is known as the Father of Free Verse, so free speech was fairly important to him too. He published his first works with his own money, which some might see as vanity publishing but it was a genuine attempt to reach the everyday American on the street. Although he did indeed reach them through his poetry, on a personal level it is unlikely that he ever threw his pants to the three winds and dived naked in to bed with anyone, male or female. He did reminisce in his later days about girlfriends and children but there is little evidence to suggest anything more than romantic friendship. Although the above was written in the 1850s Whitman may well have still been in a bad mood about 1864. In a few short months he heard that one brother had been captured by the Confederate Army, another died of alcohol related tuberculosis and a he had another brother committed to a lunatic asylum. Oh dear. He is best remembered for “Leaves of Grass” - the volume of poetry he had first paid to be printed and one which he returned to and revised about a million time in his life.

Norman Mailer

On the Democratic National Convention of 1960

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“A man of taste, arrived from Mars, would take one look at the convention floor and leave forever, convinced he had seen one of the drearier squats of hell.. a cigar-smoking, stale-aired, slack-jawed, butt-littered, foul, bleak, hardworking, bureaucratic death gas of language and faeces… lawyers, judges, ward heelers, mafiosos, Southern goons an grandees, grand old ladies, trade unionists and finks; of pompous words and long pauses which lie like a leaden pain over fever”

Mailer (1923 - 2007) was born in New Jersey and went to Harvard, so in America anything is possible. He was part of the counter culture set in the 1950s and was one of the people who founded The Village Voice. Perhaps the quote above precurses his disgust at losing in the Democratic Primary for Mayor of New York City in 1969. With a secessionist agenda for New York (he wished to create State No 51) this was hardly a surprise. Kind of an American Henry VIII in that he was married six times, except it was a case of Divorced, Divorced, Divorced, Divorced, Divorced, Survived. He died in 2007 of acute renal failure - perhaps unsurprising for a man who could vent spleen with the best of them.

Max Lerner

On the Democratic National Convention of 1968

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"Here in Chicago… you see America plain with no holds barred, no warts missing from the portrait, with everything there, including credential fights and platform debates… with hippies and yippies and the New Left, with soldiers and Secret Service and a maddening security tightness, with newsmen and photographers being clubbed by overreacting police squads, but with an unflinching resolve to show and face what America is really like."

Lerner (1902 - 1992) was a journalist who wrote a controversial column for many years. He befriended Liz Taylor during her marriage to Eddie Fisher which makes him a nice guy in my book! Although he lived a long life he had a long illness in the 1980s, which he wrote about in this book “Wrestling with the Angel”. A wise man, if ever there was, I particularly like this from him “The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core strength within you that survives all hurt.”

Peter Coyote

On the Democratic National Convention of 1996

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“Delegates were warm and gregarious, teased one another liberally, hollered and waved across the room to newcomers, drank lots of wine and chatted as if they had not seen one another in years, when apparently they see one another often. The convention seemed to be just an extension of their intentions to have a good time.”

Coyote (1941 - present) is the guy who played the scientist with the jingly keys in “ET: The Extra Terrestrial” so it may be a surprise to see him in a list of political commentators. However, he had a long history of left-wing political activism. In 1963 he was one of 12 student protestors who met in the White House with President Kennedy. This was the very first time that a group of protestors had been allowed to do so - some would say a dangerous precedent from a soon to be dead President. His most recent TV role has been the Vice Presidential nominee on the now cancelled “Commander in Chief” from ABC (kind of a “West Wing” in pantyhose).

Adlai Stevenson

Democratic National Convention of 1956

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“The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is... the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.”

Many people consider Stevenson (1900 - 1965) an also-ran because he lost out to Dwight D Eisenhower in the 1952 and 1956 elections. As a result, though, he cannot be blamed for many of the things for which Dwighty baby is blamed. He was a man of great intellect and liberal ideas even though he came from Illinois. He was from a political family with some closetty skeletons not unlike the Kennedys (Stevenson killed a friend when he was 16, practicing his drill technique with a loaded rifle. We still read the same story ever day so some things never change). You could say he was the “West Wing” TV President that never was - his reputation for being an intellectual endeared him to many people but an awful lot were put off by the same thing. One quote that doesn't appear in this list is “Americans do not like a smart man”, but it should be. We salute you Stevenson, the best President the US never had.