McGovern, a Proud Liberal, Wades Into Conservative Medium

Self-described “liberal Democrats” are in short supply this week at the convention podium. But one proudly held forth Wednesday at a microphone inside the FleetCenter: George S. McGovern, the party’s 1972 presidential nominee.

“Of course I’m a liberal!” McGovern told Bloomberg Radio as he made his way down the convention’s “radio row.” “So is [Massachusetts Sen.] Ted Kennedy. We have different elements within the Democratic Party. I don’t think that’s a weakness. By the way, I’m not against rich people. I wish I was one myself. But our party has to be one that champions the little guy.”

Score one for liberals -- or progressives, as many prefer to be called -- seeking to widen their reach in a medium dominated by conservatives. This year, Democrats have about 150 radio shows covering their convention, quadruple the turnout four years ago, and have given them far better access than they had in 2000 in Los Angeles.

Among the radio commentators lining the first floor of the FleetCenter every afternoon are liberals Al Franken and Ed Schultz, both of whom started nationally syndicated shows this year. But many, like ABC Radio’s Sean Hannity, are well-established conservatives (although the best-known, Rush Limbaugh, isn’t here). Hannity went on Franken’s Air America network the other day for a spirited debate in which each cordially called the other a liar.

Another syndicated conservative host, Neal Boortz, was zinging Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry for his audience Wednesday.

On Kerry’s waterborne arrival in Boston: “Don’t you just love this idea of John Kerry arriving in Boston today in a water taxi that is being converted to a Swift boat? He can come into the Boston Harbor today like it was the Mekong Delta and maybe draw some fire from the Republicans!”

On the get-up Kerry wore for a space shuttle tour at Cape Canaveral: “Go on my website, folks, and look at the picture of John Kerry at NASA and the picture of Woody Allen as a sperm cell. Separated at birth! No wonder they’re upset about that.”

Still, here in the enemy’s lair, Boortz said he was enjoying his first convention since his Atlanta-based show went national five years ago. Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe, a guest one day, even invited Boortz to his private skybox Tuesday night to drink beer and listen to the speeches. “I’ll probably go easier on you, but not on your candidate,” Boortz told McAuliffe afterward.

Long outmaneuvered by Republicans on talk radio, Democrats are trying to catch up. More liberal hosts like Franken and Schultz are finding space on the airwaves. And more Democrats are showing up on conservative shows, figuring they’ll reach undecided voters.

“If your host is good, he has the whole spectrum listening to him,” said Kandy Stroud, director of the Democratic radio operation.

Kerry, she said, is much more radio-savvy than 2000 nominee Al Gore, and both the Kerry campaign and the Democratic Party have dispatched an army of surrogates to do radio shows here. On Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) did her part by calling in to several broadcasts.

McGovern, escorted by a Democratic National Committee aide, has done about 35 radio interviews in three days and seems game to go wherever needed. The former South Dakota senator, now 82, marveled at the development of a political medium barely seen at the Miami Beach convention that nominated him 32 years ago.

But he did have one complaint: “Most of the radio hosts speak at a machine-gun rate, and you feel kind of sluggish trying to get a word in.”