Powerful or Pitiful: The Rocky Mountain News archives

The Rocky is pulling out the coverage of Denver's last Democratic National Convention, dusting it off because it's from July 1908, and putting it online for all to see day by day.

At time when 24 hours can take up a whole TV season just to explain, it's interesting to see that while there was a certain "quaintness" to coverage back then, that issues haven't changed that much over 100 years.

For example, today we still are arguing one way or another about expanding or restricting suffrage, whether it be restricted or expanded through showing ID, not showing ID, etc. Of course the arguments are very much different than in 1908 when the suffrage issue was one of a woman's basic right to vote, which everyone today supports, except of course people like Bob Enyart, State Senator Ted Harvey and State Senator Dave Schulthies.

Ha ha ha! Just kidding. Mostly.

We're especially impressed with yesterday's quote from William Jennings Bryan carried in the Rocky on June 24, 1908:   

"There has been a lowering of our ideals of life," Bryan says. "The measure of success has been money, and the method by which the money was acquired has not been considered. Hence the lowering of American ideals has led to the debauching of society as well as to the corruption of politics."

It's hard to find a quote more in tune with the populist campaigns of today from both the right and the left  

Like Ron Paul today, Bryan was a hard money man, who opposed a big national banking system.  Like Obama, he was considered by critics to be a terrific orator whose impractical ideas threatened economic prosperity. Like John McCain, he was...well... a man.

Our Verdict: Powerful