At our lunch yesterday Congressman Oberstar told a great story about his first convention--in 1964.

The convention was in Atlantic City. He was at the convention working on behalf of a member of Congress from Minnesota. LBJ was the nominee, but the V.P. candidate was up in the air. The Minnesota delegates were told to not explicity campaign for Hubert H. Humphrey. Apparently that just was not done. So they did it on the sly. That said, the powers behind the convention were somewhat anti-MN and did little things to hinder the effort to get HHH in the vice president spot. For instance, the MN hotel was the furthest away (sounds familiar). Oberstar was instructed to pick up the Minnesota delegation credentials. He went to the convention hall and was greeted by a 6'5" Texan who said, "where you from, boy?"

Oberstar responded that he was from Minnesota and the Texan replied, "What's that DFL stand for on y'all's badges?"

Oberstar gamely replied, "Democrats for Lyndon" and the Texan said, "Well y'all come on in."