ABSTRACT
The scene at Convention Hall in Miami, where Democrats were assembled after more than a year of campaigning, caucuses, and primaries, was enough to dismay the old-timers of the Democratic Party. The “Democratic establishment’s” mistake in the summer of 1968 was to so split the party that there was not time to mend the split before the November elections. The demonstrators and others there were not volunteering for service in the Democratic Party, although they were pleased by the prospect. Party leaders, both Democratic and Republican, look for a winner, which is to say they attempt to find among their possibilities a nominee who will be well received, obtain the confidence of the voters, and win. The Goldwater forces had organized from one edge of the Republican Party and had effectively garnered a working majority by the time Goldwater took all the California delegate votes.
