Eisenhower's Penn class has front-row seat for conventions

THE CLASS AT PENN is called "Comm428: Conventions, Debates, Campaigns." It is taught only once every four years. It is one of a kind.

The classroom? The Republican and Democratic national conventions.

The students are from the Annenberg School for Communication and the Fels Institute of Government.

The professor, who created the class back in 1988, is David Eisenhower.

That name may be familiar to readers of a certain (old) age. He is the grandson of the nation's 34th president (Dwight D. Eisenhower) and son-in-law of the nation's 37th (Richard Nixon).

Not that many students recognize that.

On Stephen Colbert's TV show a couple of years ago, Colbert asked Eisenhower and wife Julie Nixon Eisenhower if they were looked upon as icons of the 1950s.

"Well . . . if they even know who we are at all," Julie answered. When "picking up prescriptions, I have to tell people, 'You spell Eisenhower with an E, not an I.' "

"And as you're spelling it," said Colbert, "you're saying, 'He defeated Hitler!' "

Eisenhower will be joined at the conventions by colleagues Marjorie Margolies, a former congresswoman from the Philadelphia suburbs, and Al Felzenberg, a presidential historian.

They've lined up private meetings and lunches for the students with a number of key convention players. (Gov. Christie of New Jersey is a possibility.)

"For any citizen or student of politics, attendance at a national political convention is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will forever change one's perspective on politics, and even influence career choices," said Eisenhower, who is also director of the Institute for Public Service at Annenberg.

The students also will share their experiences with readers of the Daily News, as they did four years ago.

One of those students four years ago was Andrew Reich. He's now a law student at Columbia University.

Reich said the experts and insiders assembled for the class showed "us what the textbooks never could and [guided] us through our country's political history along the way. . . . The entire class even made an appearance on Chris Matthews' political talk show, 'Hardball.' "

And got to see their names in the Daily News.

Contact Gar Joseph at 215-854-5895 or clout@phillynews.com. Follow our convention coverage on Twitter @CloutCon.