TAMPA, Fla. - Political conventions are well known for their parties, but CBS correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer took his first one to new heights: love making.

The folksy reporter was helping to open a National Journal breakfast here Thursday to discuss the presidential campaign when he was asked if conventions still had a place in politics.

Revealing that he has attended 22 conventions, starting with the riot- and tear gas-filled 1968 Democratic gathering in Chicago, he offered that he hoped so. And he gave this reason:

"This was my first one, 1968, and my wife and I went," he said.

"We had just been married a couple of years and we thought we weren't going to have any kids. So the last thing my wife did before we went to Chicago, she went to the local adoption agency and started filling out the forms. We were going to adopt a child," said Schieffer.

Then to laughs and applause, he said, "to make a long story short, nine months to the day after having been to the adoption center my first daughter was born."

The couple never revealed details of that night to their daughter, but Schieffer said she figured it out many years later while in high school. "When she finally put the numbers together," he added, "she turned to her mom one day and said, 'I guess it wasn't all fighting'" in Chicago.

Schieffer said he thought conventions will eventually be shortened, but won't go away because political parties need them to introduce presidential candidates to the nation. And, he added, "I hope they continue because there are just so many parties."