5 GOP convention moments to remember

Can they top this? As Republican delegates gather again, check out five memorable moments from their past national conventions:

1912: At one of the most tumultuous of GOP gatherings, former President Theodore Roosevelt challenges sitting President William Howard Taft for the nomination. Taft survives, and Roosevelt bolts to start the progressive Bull Moose Party.

1952: With the nomination up in the air, the defeated nominee of 1948, Thomas Dewey, pushes Gen. Dwight Eisenhower for the job. Sen. Everett Dirksen disagrees and angrily assails Dewey, pointing him out on live TV and declaring, “We followed you before, and you took us down the path of defeat!” The delegates decide they like Ike anyway.

1988: Nearing the end of his second term, President Ronald Reagan bids an emotional farewell and harkens back to his movie career as he urges Vice President George H.W. Bush: “Go out there and win one for the Gipper.”

1992: First lady Barbara Bush launches a new tradition of wives speaking to talk up the candidates’ personal sides: “When one of the boys hit a baseball through the Vanderhoff second-story window, I called George to see what dire punishment should be handed out. And all he said was, `The Vanderhoff second-story window, what a hit!”’

1992: Mary Fisher, infected with HIV, pleads with her party and the nation: “We have killed each other with our ignorance, our prejudice and our silence. ... Learn with me the lessons of history and of grace, so my children will not be afraid to say the word `AIDS’ when I am gone.”