The foreign news service AFP has a story on Howard Dean trying to avert a convention fight that includes some purple prose:

A brokered convention has not been seen in decades, and harkens back to an era of shady political deal-making when powerbrokers and cash kings — instead of regular voters — chose one candidate over another at a raucous, smoke-filled convention hall.

“[C]ash kings”? Really?

For what it’s worth, while conventions are less democratic, they actually often served to better represent the interests of the general public since the “shady political deal-making” was often geared toward choosing the candidate most likely to win. The dominance of primaries by ideological activists has arguably enhanced polarization.