Remembering Alf Landon

Politico has rolled out a new feature covering the big parties' conventions. With the Dems only a week away, and the depth of the Politico bench, it will surely be a fun read.

Yesterday we cut and pasted a New York Times sidebar on the speakers at their convention. It's a crowded roster, given the sensibilities and sensitivities of candidates, congressional and other party leaders, and The Clintons.

One thing we used to look forward to- when watching the GOP conclave, was the quadrennial speech of its oldest living presidential nominee, former Kansas governor Alf Landon. Landon, who made rolling sagebrush seem exciting, got elected largely because he wasn't the monkey gland doctor, John Brinkley, in 1932 (The Radio Reader just finished reading a hugely entertaining biography of Brinkley, Charlatan).

Two years later Landon got creamed by Franklin Roosevelt, finished his term as governor, and returned to private business. He died in 1987, a month after his 100th birthday. Landon's last convention appearance was in 1984, along with Ronald Reagan's swan song.

This year the Democrats have the deepest bench of former nominees, going back to 1972 and George McGovern, who turned eighty-six last month. Jimmy Carter (the next two elections) is hale and globetrotting at 83. Walter Mondale (1984), 80, supports Senator Obama and shares with Carter this bit of political trivia:

Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On December 11, 2007, they had been out of office for 26 years and 325 days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826.

Michael Dukakis, 74, lingers on somewhere in the shadows, never having been forgiven for 1988. Then there's Bubba Clinton- sixty-two tomorrow- whose psychodramas will be inflicted on his party's convention in a way that Richard Nixon (who had the good sense to decline invitations to attend before they were extended after he resigned) never did the Republicans. Al Gore, sixty, grows sleeker, balder and richer- a post-partisan Howard Beale of the Environment.

John Kerry, sixty-four, recently generated the headline "No Way"on Drudge when his name surfaced as a potential Obama veep. Only in Teresa's weird mindgames.

By contrast, the Republicans' rule of primogeniture means you wait your turn and sometimes that can be a long wait. Their most senior nominee is George H.W. Bush, 84, who was sixty-four when he got his first nod in 1988. Bob Dole, the GOP's second Clinton foe, was 73 when the party put him up. 85 now, he co-chairs presidential commissions on things.

All that's left is the incumbent, a sixty-two year old frat boy. And the new nominee, a sprightly 72.

And they call the US Senate the world's best nursing home.