Hearing of Lloyd Bentsen's passing I couldn't help but remember a forgotten but great moment in my life as a Democrat.
It was right before the Vice Presidential debate. Dukakis was still looking like the favorite, and everyone thought Bentsen would do a good job against Quayle, but nobody really knew Bentsen very well.
I was living in St. Louis and went down the the Soullard Farmer's Market by the Brewery to hear Lloyd address the crowd on his barnstorm tour of the US.
After blessedly-brief intro speaches, Lloyd popped up on a fruit vendor's stand and gave us that old-time religion. It was about the little guy,
and how he'd been screwed by the Republicans. It was about jobs for real people, and the right to be yourself without the government screwing around with you. It was about the meanness of the Republicans and how they only cared about themselves. Most importantly, it was about us and here and now, and how we were going to change things for the better for us, for our kids, and for the world.
Then a band kicked in and the place went nuts. Dancing fruit vendors, immigrants, suburbanites, city-dwellers, people of every age shape and form. Dancin' in the streets.
I remember it. Like it should have been yesterday. Back then they all knew the drill. And it got me every time.