Dean's Convention Conundrum

Should it make you nervous that a city has not been selected for the Democratic Convention in 2008. Yes, it should. My feeling is this could be the first of many blunders which will spell doom for the Democrats next year. (See link to Yahoo article)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070105/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_convention_dilemma

The two finalists in the race to host the convention are New York and Denver. Normally I'd say it would be a slam dunk for New York, but times are changing. In the last few years, Democrats have picked up many governorships and congressional seats in the Midwest which were Republican strongholds.

Denver has several things other things going for them including being centrally located in the middle of the US and having a new airport. At the same time, several factors are working against them, including having a limited number of hotels that would be available and close to the convention site.

But it's the labor unions that are putting up the big stink. Since the Pepsi Center is a non-union work place, they have threatened to strike if the convention is held there. This poses a problem for the Democrats because if they stand up and say this is the choice we have made, labor could effectively cost them the election. If the party gives into their demands or decides against Denver all together because of the thread of a strike, the Democrats look weak.

Now I don't hold myself up as either pro-union or anti-union. I do think holding a convention hostage ridiculous. Maybe the unions would like another four years of Bush-like policies to help screw them and the rest of the nation. I sure as hell don't.

In terms of holding the convention in New York (which I have nothing against the city) I feel it would be a bad idea. Mayor Bloomberg will likely make it as tough as possible to hold a convention there. My second concern is that the Democrats will do the same thing the Republicans did in 2004 which is to use 9/11 as a political tool to manipulate the public. It's not like New York won't have a chance to host another convention in 2012. In fact, I'm positive it will be on both parties short list no matter what happens this time around.

It's time for Dean to put his foot down and settle this quickly.