As political speeches go, it was certainly more memorable than the poll-tested, bromide-filled, sleep-inducing addresses one typically hears at party nominating conventions. U.S. Senate candidate Larry Livingston had just admonished the Democratic delegates assembled at the Salt Palace Convention Center for embracing policies too liberal for the state’s electorate.

“If you think you’re going to win this state with your radical left-wing agenda, then you’re on a better drug than I am,” Livingston said. “You will not!”