The 1996 in Chicago wasn’t political to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. It was personal.
He didn’t have to say a word to his top aides. It was understood. Daley was determined to showcase a new and different Chicago on the world stage and erase the ugly memory of the clashes between anti-Vietnam War protesters and Chicago police that marred during his father’s tenure.
He managed to do that in spectacular fashion, putting on a convention that was almost picture-perfect — right down to the cloudless skies and star-filled nights. Delegates attending Bill Clinton’s nomination as president left singing Chicago’s praises. Headlines hailed the new Chicago.
When it was over, Daley was like a giddy child on Christmas morning during a celebratory news conference at Navy Pier. The weight had been lifted from his — and Chicago’s — big shoulders. Police try to clear Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug.
28, 1968. Associated Press “We knew that ’68 footage would be coming up again and again and again. His interest was less about any sort of vindication about his dad.
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It was more about people who were giving Chicago a raw deal,” said Leslie Fox, executive director of the 1996 convention’s host committee. “He saw this as an opportunity to show a city that does work — not a city that crumbles under the pressure of protesters. The stakes were pretty high.
” Fox quarterbacked a close-knit Daley team that helped deliver a nearly f.