Archive for the 'Conventions' category

A Moderate Revolution

May 29 2006 Published by under Conventions, Democrats, Elections, Politics, Republicans

PoliticsDemocratsRepublicansMy friend Anne tipped me off to this one…

Tomorrow, Unity08 launches their effort to elect a bipartisan, moderate ticket. The effort is organized by Doug Bailey (of Hotline fame) and a handful of seasoned political operatives. Seasoned? Hell, some of these guys are centenarians that served in the first Roosevelt administration. Ok, that last part is an exaggeration, but Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon are holdovers from the Carter campaign and Bailey worked for Ford. I hope they have someone under 60 putting together their Internet strategy.

The idea, though, is desperately overdue. I have railed against the primary/redistricting processes here and this effort is one logical outcome of those failed systems. When redistricting guarantees that the only real challenges come from the fringe, not in the general, you end up with primaries that pit the ideologues against one another.

Hopefully this effort will call attention to the inherent flaws in the two parties and result in the two having to fight for the middle once again.

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Convo Predictions

May 23 2006 Published by under Conventions, Democrats, Politics, Republicans

RepublicansDemocratsPoliticsThe bids are in and the list of cities hoping to host the national convos in 2008 has been narrowed down to:

Denver (Dem)
New Orleans (Dem)
New York (Both)
Minneapolis-St. Paul (Both)
Cleveland (GOP)
Tampa-St. Pete (GOP)

Given those options, here are my predictions.

Denver 2008

The Democrats will end up in Denver. It’s nice there during the summer, it provides plenty of opportunities for photo-ops with the politically subtle “purple mountain majesty” and is located in a state they hope to claim as their own next year.

New Orleans would be a tempting locale as well, given they’ll want to highlight the failures of the Administration. However, by that time, the city will be much closer to a sound recovery and they are not likely to stand there and say, “well, sure, it looks good now, but remember when…”

Nobody is going to go to New York. It’s too left for the GOP (unless there’s a thematic reason as there was in 2004) and too safe for the Dems. They’ll want to go somewhere that’s on the fence, and might be tipped their direction.

Minneapolis-St. Paul 2008

The GOP will be thinking the same way. They need a possible pick up and Minnesota is it. Florida is a reliable vote and it’s horrid in the summer. Sure, the convo will be the end of August/beginning of September, but Minneapolis is better at that time of year.

It’s got a down home, “connected to the real America” feel and who can’t imagine the press conferences that will be held beside the giant spoon and cherry.

So that’s it… those are my picks… the donkey’s will put the “D” back in denver (I’m thinking of copywriting that joke and charging royalties if they use it) and the GOP will go to Minnesota. Anyone disagree?

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