ABSTRACT
Historically, the convention emerged as a vehicle of nomination after political parties came on the scene and changed the original method of choosing a President presented in the Constitution, namely where notables from the various states—the Electoral College—would decide who the best man was. Now the longevity and general acceptance of the convention is in large part due to the multiplicity of functions which it uniquely performs. Democratic Conventions often used to be very lengthy, because of the old two-thirds rule, under which the President was nominated by a two-thirds vote of all the delegates. The 1972 Democratic convention witnessed an unprecedented number of challenges—twenty-three—to the credentials committee. The 1980 Republican convention is clearly going to be a consensual convention; in fact it will be a coronation. In 1972 there were more persons as delegates who had minimal prior political experience than in the history of all conventions.
