1968 chaos opened door for Obama 40 years later

The Democratic National Convention in Denver this week comes exactly 40 years after that jolting episode that became a milestone in American politics.

While another unpopular war, this one in Iraq, will take center stage at the 2008 convention--in which Barack Obama is expected to be nominated in what amounts to a party group hug--it will look nothing like the one in 1968 marked by violence and deep party dissension.

Thousands of protesters are expected in Denver, including a group called Re-create 68 that leaves no doubt where its inspiration lies. One group even says it will use mental energy to shake the Denver Mint and shake the money out. But while there are plans for scores of demonstrations and anti-war rallies, and members of an anti-abortion group will try to be arrested, the incendiary rhetoric has been toned down and no repeat is expected of the violence that plagued the 1968 convention.

Much of what will happen--and won't--starting Monday is a direct result of what unfolded four decades ago.

After the embarrassment of the 1968 convention, Democrats changed the way delegates were selected, taking much of the power to select them away from political bosses like the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and giving it to voters in state primaries and caucuses.

"The last primary season is a direct result of 1968," said former Sen. George McGovern, who finished a distant third at the convention and helped lead the effort to establish a new process of selecting delegates.

That system enabled Obama to build enough momentum to become the nominee just four years removed from being an obscure Illinois state senator.

"Had there been party leaders who had a major role in choosing the nominee this year it is probably much more likely it would have been a Hillary Clinton rather than a young Barack Obama," said presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The year 1968 was unique in American history. There was widespread anger over the Vietnam War. President Lyndon Johnson had announced he wouldn't seek re-election, and Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy were murdered.