OS ANGELES - Senator John F. Kerry got a standing-O yesterday from the Massachusetts delegates at a morning breakfast session for the Bay State crowd.
Kerry made a two-fisted pitch for the Democratic ticket, but first he told a sobering anecdote that momentarily hushed the relaxed and generally upbeat crowd. He recalled sailing back to the United States from his first tour of Vietnam as a Navy officer.
''It was on June 6, 1968,'' he began. As his troop ship approached the Southern California coast near Los Angeles Harbor, ''the first scratchy news reports we picked up'' from an LA radio station included word that Robert Kennedy had been shot in the Ambassador Hotel.
Kerry talked about the first time he met vice presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman, when they were both students at Yale. ''I recruited Joe Lieberman to run for the United States Senate when I was chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee,'' he said. (Globe Staff)
Big crowd puts the brakes on a busload from Mass.
A busload of Massachusetts delegates arrived at the convention hall 21/2 hours late - just before Hillary Rodham Clinton started speaking - because of the throng of peaceful demonstrators outside the Staples Center. About 25 delegates had boarded the bus for the ride from the hotel but ended up going in circles until the driver could get them to the hall. (Globe Staff)
Mayor Menino camps out in much classier comfort
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, with a glint in his eye, took in the spectacle in Los Angeles yesterday and recalled attending the 1980 Democratic National Convention in Manhattan, if only for the contrasting experience.
''In New York I slept on a park bench,'' Menino said. Asked where that bench was, Menino threw up his hands. ''How do I know? I just had to find a place to sleep.'' Apparently, he and some friends from Hyde Park just had to be there to cheer on Senator Edward M. Kennedy. ''When I checked into my room today I thought, I've come a long way,'' the mayor added. The Beverly Hilton confirmed that Menino is staying in a two-room parlor suite. (Globe Staff)
Convention performance completes their circle
Jennifer Powers of Andover, the granddaughter of the curator of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, will sing the national anthem today at the convention.
Powers, 20, a student at Northwestern University, is scheduled to sing at 4 p.m. and will complete a circle of history for the Powers family. Forty years ago in Los Angeles, her grandfather, Dave Powers, who was then special assistant to John F. Kennedy, attended JFK's nominating convention.
(Globe Staff)
