The History of Deadlocked Party Conventions, Brushing Up on Your Trivia.

Now that it appears entirely possible that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton will go into the Democratic National Convention in August with enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot, it’s time to pull off the shelf the Congressional Quarterly’s, “National Party Conventions, 1831-2004,” and see how you do on some interesting questions, such as: 1. When was the last time it took more than one ballot to nominate a candidate for the Democrats? 2. For the Republicans? 3. What is the most ballots it ever took at a convention to nominate someone? 4. When, and who won that nomination? OK, here are the answers (it’s too much trouble to put them upside down or on a separate page): 1. 1952, 2. 1952, 3. 103, 4. 1924, John W. Davis (who lost in the general election to Calvin Coolidge, himself previously the vice-president to Warren G. Harding, who was nominated on the 10^th ballot in 1920).