McCain may follow FDR in accepting nomination

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may follow in the footsteps of one of the Democratic Party’s greatest icons: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Roosevelt accepted his party's 1944 presidential nomination away from the convention in Chicago but from his train on a U.S. naval base on the Pacific Coast. Consumed with winning World War II, Roosevelt was meeting with military generals to discuss battle plans for the conflict. The then-three term president spoke via radio to the delegates to accept their nomination.

{mosads}McCain may not attend the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. Instead, he might speak to his party’s delegates over a satellite television connection to accept the presidential nomination.

With Hurricane Gustav making landfall on the Gulf Coast Monday, McCain has been in the region to observe emergency preparations for the natural disaster and could give his acceptance speech from the disaster zone.

If McCain does not speak from the podium in St. Paul, it could be the first time since Roosevelt that a presidential candidate does not accept his party's nomination in person.

FDR was also a history-maker in another element of convention lore, this one at the beginning of his presidential tenure. At that point, tradition had it that both parties’ presidential candidates did not accept their nominations in person at the conventions.

But Roosevelt, then the governor of New York, flew from Albany to Chicago to accept the presidential nomination at the 1932 Democratic Party convention. FDR would later win his first term in the White House.

Roosevelt’s opponent in the 1944 election, Thomas Dewey, another New York governor, was the first Republican to accept his party’s nomination in person at its Chicago convention. After defeating Dewey, Roosevelt died in office in 1945 and Harry S. Truman replaced him.

At the 1944 convention, Roosevelt said in his speech to delegates that he could not attend the gathering because of his “constitutional duties” to oversee the country’s war effort, according to a dispatch from The New York Times. In addition, FDR told conventioneers — his speech booming out over the hall’s loudspeakers — that he was too busy and the conflict too serious to actively campaign for reelection.

Like FDR, McCain has said politics should be put aside in order to concentrate on the well-being of the nation.

{mospagebreak}Convention activities in St. Paul this week have been severely curtailed. At the invitation of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), visited the state Sunday to observe preparations for the storm.

McCain’s rival for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), has also kept a close eye on Gustav. He has spoken with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, among others, while his campaign has begun to organize volunteers to help with planned recovery efforts.

GOP conventioneers are being mobilized by organizers to help with this year’s relief effort. Partnered with FedEx, Target and the Red Cross, the convention hopes to assemble 80,000 “comfort packages” for those affected by Gustav.

{mosads}President Bush has been well aware of the politics surrounding hurricane recovery.

His brother, Jeb, then the Republican Florida governor, did not attend the party’s 2004 convention in New York so he could oversee his state’s response to the storms.

Four hurricanes struck the Sunshine State that year. With Florida off-limits to campaigning for several weeks because of the destruction, President Bush visited often to hand out aid to residents. He won the state from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in his reelection bid.

Many Democrats noted that the federal response to Katrina was far inferior to the 2004 effort in Florida.

President Bush appeared to learn the political lesson to actively respond to natural disasters from his father’s failed reelection bid.

Some Floridians were waiting for days before they saw a federal response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which led to critical headlines across the country.

Many blamed the first Bush administration. President George H.W. Bush barely won the key swing state against Bill Clinton in the presidential election.

If McCain does not venture to St. Paul to accept his party’s nomination, it will not be his only similarity to FDR. His campaign has a parallel theme with the Democratic icon’s 1944 reelection bid.

In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt said voters should choose “experience” over “immaturity,” according to The New York Times. McCain has often attacked Obama for the Illinois senator’s relative inexperience in elected office.