The selling of a candidate
A new sort of Republican Party was on display this week. Hard electoral calculations lie behind it
AMERICAN party conventions can be many things: coronations, occasions for bloodletting, even (once upon a time) forums for choosing a candidate. The Republican convention in Philadelphia was none of those things. It was a national convention for salesmen, an occasion when the party leader unveiled his new, improved brand to the company sales force and fired them up to go out and sell it.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The selling of a candidate”
From the August 5th 2000 edition
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