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Such forces are at work even in the rather unusual case of Georgia's Democratic delegation, which is handpicked by Segregationist Governor Lester Maddox. Maddox cannot ignore the realities of political balance, and Georgia delegates aim to keep open minds. Or so insists Lawyer Irving Kaler, a Jewish liberal delegate who rebuilt the party's Atlanta machinery. "The convention atmosphere itself encourages you to consider very carefully," says Kaler, "You don't operate in a vacuum. Every instrument of public opinion is focused on you. If you wear a delegate badge, five people stop you before you can get across the hotel lobby, and every one of them asks, 'What are you gonna do?' In the whole convention process now, more and more influences are reaching the delegates, moving them farther from the old boss system." Kaler argues that this must bring the outcome "pretty close to what the people want."
The candidates' increasingly frantic supplication of supposedly convinced delegates suggests that quite a few of those 4,322 minds may be open. In this volatile political year, which has been rife with surprises, which has produced widespread grumbling about preordained choices but presents little visible evidence of bossism at work the delegates may conceivably be more independent than ever.