The 1948 Democratic National Convention convened at the Philadelphia Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 12 to July 15. The crowd was smaller than the Republican Convention held a few weeks earlier. Some delegates carried banners with the slogan "Keep American Human with Truman". Viewing the first televised Democratic National Convention from the White House, Truman heard Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky deliver a keynote address that energized the delegates in the convention hall. After his speech, some delegates broke into a spontaneous demonstration and marched around the hall singing "My Old Kentucky Home" carrying banners inscribed with "Barkley for Vice-President". When Senator Howard McGrath asked Truman his views on the speech, Truman replied, "If Barkley is what the convention wanted for the vice presidency, then Barkley is my choice too." At 71, Barkley was older than Truman, and from Kentucky, neither of which helped to counteract the issue of Truman's age, nor bring a geographical balance to the ticket. But Barkley was immensely popular within the Democratic party, and political experts wrote that his presence on the ticket would help to cement the fractious Democratic coalition. The next day, Truman called Barkley asking him to be his running mate, saying "If I had known you wanted it [the vice presidency], I certainly would have been agreeable." Barkley agreed to be his running mate.