Favorite Sons

July 12, 1968
by Janine Stephenson

Our new job isn’t going well, at least not for me. Becca and I are working a telephone hotline where The Senator’s workers can call in and get information. The calls are usually for questions about the convention, but every now and then, we get a phone call about the process itself.

Remember back in New Hampshire, when I said that I had no idea about delegates and what they do? We get those types of calls, often quite a bit.

For example, a man from Arizona called today to ask about “favorite sons.” He wanted to know if I could explain why there is such a thing and did the Democratic Party have anything in place so that the convention wouldn’t be tied up with such nonsense.

Now how am I supposed to answer that? I’m not the Democratic Party. I’m just a girl from Wisconsin. I know there is such a thing as favorite sons at the convention, but I don’t know what they do.

Since I didn’t know, I tried to make it up. Which is very bad, I understand. If you don’t know something, you should never try to pretend you do, except on a test or exam. Then you should at least guess an answer.

So I told the caller that favorite sons would kept to a minimum at the convention because the favorite sons would gather together at the end and elect someone. Then he asked me who they’d elect and for what. I didn’t know, so I told him that they would elect a most favorite son. That’s who they’d elect, the most favorite son.

He was more puzzled then ever, but at least I got him off the phone. I wish I didn’t have to guess at these things, but the campaign doesn’t have any literature to train us. There’s no Election 101 Booklet and everyone seems to think that we know everything. I don’t, but I don’t want to get fired so it’s better to guess. I hope I did the right thing.

In the News: July 12, 1968