They show how soon fame disappears. The new faces that emerged just three conventions ago, Michael Dukakis and Dan Quayle, are already forgotten. One antidote for those desiring political glory might be a visit to the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Founded in the mid-19th century, this weird but popular attraction includes a display of over 150 skulls in big wall cabinets, face out. Their empty sockets don't allow them to make eye contact with voters, but their teeth are generally regular enough to produce a Jimmy Carter effect.
Conventions show how politicians often try to burnish a skull.
New Jersey Governor Christy Todd Whitman threw a big shindig for GOP poobahs on Sunday night of convention week. The Mutter Museum is named after the doctor who collected skulls and much else, and not the guttural noises made by shocked onlookers. But I wish the Republicans for Choice at the convention, and others who do not see the battle against abortion as an integral part of compassionate conservatism, would see the stillborn and aborted children preserved in bottles at the museum. They look a lot like human beings to me. Conventions these days, unless they get out of control, show smiling unity and an optimistic sense that all problems can and will be solved.