Rice University presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Professor of Humanities, played a pivotal role in analyzing the third night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, for CBS News.
The four-day convention held Aug. 19-22. in Chicago at the United Center featured elected officials, celebrities and Americans from all walks of life speaking out in support of the Democratic Party leadership, presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Among the featured speakers was Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the U.S. Brinkley discussed Clinton’s historic speech at the convention in 1992.
“Bill Clinton did something quite miraculous (at that convention),” Brinkley said. “He started defining himself as a new Democrat, meaning after Walter Mondale lost in 1984 and Dukakis in ’88, Clinton started saying, ‘I’m something different. I’m not a liberal. I have different concerns.’”
Brinkley called Clinton’s 1992 convention speech “one of the masterpieces in political theater.”
“He ended up getting the highest spike out of a convention in polling because of the speech he gave,” Brinkley said. “Everybody knew he could deliver a great speech, but ’92 put him into the stratosphere.”
Brinkley also talked about the 1968 Democratic National Convention — also held in Chicago — during another period of political unrest and divisiveness. He discussed comparisons between the two during the interview and recently in an essay for Vanity Fair.
“When you got to Chicago (in 1968), it really was a tinderbox,” Brinkley said. “Young people and other Americans, particularly young people in ’68, were protesting about being drafted. They didn’t want to go fight in Vietnam. They had a real stake in it, so it was much more contentious.”
Brinkley said the 2024 Democratic National Convention was much lower key.
“That doesn’t mean what’s happening in the Gaza war isn’t deeply significant, but it hasn’t really affected the milieu within the United Center except for perhaps hypersecurity precautions,” he said.
Brinkley’s full interview is online here.
Brinkley’s historical perspectives on political conventions, speeches and candidates will be presented in depth Oct. 22 at the Humanities Innovations event, “Douglas Brinkley and Caleb McDaniel in Conversation: Historical Perspectives on the 2024 Presidential Election.” The event, which is open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Stude Concert Hall in Rice’s Shepherd School of Music.