:dubious:
Wow! It really hasn’t recovered, has it? Man, that brings it all home.
Even if you think the evacuation went smoothly that is hardly a testament to New Orleans’ infrastructure. They didn’t evacuate people on streetcars. (Also, am I the only one who noticed your first link is to a unaboard thread?)
According to the Washington Post article, there are currently 7,000 hotel rooms in downtown Denver. Lamar Mundane, where did you read that the Dems insist on 18, 000 rooms?
New Orleans also has the worry of getting smaller not bigger by 2008. A University of New Orleans survey found that 17% of residents surveyed felt “Very likely” to leave within the next 2 years, 15% “somewhat likely”. (PDF File) That’s not going to help hotel staffing issues.
Out of curiousity, what is the largest of these conventions that Nashville hosts every year? Also, have you ever traveled to a convention? Wouldn’t you think if things got fucked up, and you had to rebook your air travel, hotel, rental car, and everything else to a “b” city, you and virtually every other conventioneer would be put out? And surely if there’s thousands of people ticked off that they have to rebook, the whole thing might end up being a flop?
I went to the Democratic convention in Boston in 2004. Like most of the people there, I would not be able to rebook my private jet and change my reservations for the Presidential suite to some backup city; mostly because I flew Airtran and stayed at the Boston University dorms on my own dime.
I had a great time, but I’m telling you – I had the feeling that Boston was damn near overwhelmed by the number of people attending the convention.
Also, you’re missing an important point: candidates matter, the places where conventions are held don’t. Has anyone ever told you that they voted for the candidate who gave that nice speech in (insert city name here) several months ago?
I got it from the City of Denver website.
Never said that it went smoothly, only that it was the largest. If they can manage to pull that off, then shuffling 20K people around should be easy.
Yeah, that’s a problem.
Ravenman, yeah, I’ve been to a convention. A couple of them as a matter of fact. I don’t know what the average size of a convention in Nashville is, but every year they host “Fan Fair” (or some such, they’ve changed the name recently) which attracts more than 20K people each year.
Nor would the swap to a different city be as difficult as you seem to imply. If the folks running the convention go with that in mind when they set everything up, then your tickets, reservations, etc. would automatically transfer over. I don’t believe such things are uncommon in the travel industry.
And yes, the candidate is more important than the location, but the location can add a great deal of impact to what the candidate is saying.
Jackson, Mississippi will never, ever host a major political convention. Never.
There. Fixed that for ya.
Mississippi, with a Republican governor, has done a great job of recovering from Katrina. You want to contrast that with New Orleans which, under Democratic leadership, is still a mess? I don’t think you’ve thought your cunning plan through.
Great galloping Jesus, you’re right. Can a Moderator here please remove the link in the OP to a thread on my board that has nothing at all to do with the OP here?
Done.
You’ve been to a convention. Great. Have you ever been involved in organizing one? I have, a lot smaller than a political convention to be sure.
In the old days, New Orleans would have easily been able to host a convention. They had a World’s Fair there, remember? But not today. It costs a city a lot of money to host this thing, and N.O. don’t got it, along with the other good points made.
As for Jackson - it is to laugh. I don’t suspect Jackson is very easy to get to by air. Denver is a hub. As for hotels, I used to go to the Western Electric plant in Denver, and there are tons of hotels up 25, and I suspect tons down 25 also, all relatively close. Denver in January wouldn’t be a good choice, in August fine.
BTW, it is not easy to move a convention. It would be a nightmare. Trying to book a totally different set of flights at the last minute? When you organize a convention, you reserve blocks of rooms. Would you reserve these blocks in the backup city, and pay the penalty when you don’t use them? Or would you just hope 18,000 rooms, (and 50K room nights) would just be available. How would your supporter feel sleeping four to a room in a Motel 6?
You’ve been to a convention. Great. Have you ever been involved in organizing one? I have, a lot smaller than a political convention to be sure.
In the old days, New Orleans would have easily been able to host a convention. They had a World’s Fair there, remember? But not today. It costs a city a lot of money to host this thing, and N.O. don’t got it, along with the other good points made.
As for Jackson - it is to laugh. I don’t suspect Jackson is very easy to get to by air. Denver is a hub. As for hotels, I used to go to the Western Electric plant in Denver, and there are tons of hotels up 25, and I suspect tons down 25 also, all relatively close. Denver in January wouldn’t be a good choice, in August fine.
BTW, it is not easy to move a convention. It would be a nightmare. Trying to book a totally different set of flights at the last minute? When you organize a convention, you reserve blocks of rooms. Would you reserve these blocks in the backup city, and pay the penalty when you don’t use them? Or would you just hope 18,000 rooms, (and 50K room nights) would just be available. How would your supporter feel sleeping four to a room in a Motel 6?
Gee, thanks for altering my quote. So you’re telling me that FEMA had nothing to do with the clusterfuck that happened in the Gulf Coast? 'Cause, pretty much everything I’ve heard disagrees with you. Naygan and Blanco might be idiots, but, you know what? One of the reasons why the Founding Fathers had a central government with broad powers so that the Feds could step in and fix things that the states were unable to fix. We tried letting the states run things once. Remember the Articles of Confederation? Didn’t work out too well. Otherwise, we’d still have them.
Actually, from everything I’ve read, Mississippi’s still a mess as well. In fact, they do a lot of bitching that New Orleans has gotten all the attention, while they’ve been left to rot on the vine. Wow, given how fucked up New Orleans is, I can’t imagine how bad the parts of Mississippi that got wiped out must be.
Voyager, Jackson’s got an airport, complete with a Starbucks! Imagine that. Well, if a little ol’ backwater state like Mississippi can have Starbucks, then just imagine what else they could have!
Nor is the reservation and scrubbing the blocks of rooms in one city that big of a deal. Hotel chains (even those big un’s like Hilton and such) give huge discounts if you book all your convention goers into their place. You simply strike a deal with them. You tell 'em that you’ll reserve blocks of rooms in City A and City B, provided they’re willing to give you a deal so that if you cancel the convention in one city, you’re not dinged for the full cost there. They’ll bite, trust me. And New Orleans managed to handle the Sugar Bowl, plus the various Saint’s games, so it doesn’t strike me that a political convention a year from now would be totally out of the question.
You have a…fascinating view of history if you think this massive government bureaucracy we’re saddled with is ANYTHING like what the Founding Fathers envisioned. Not accurate, mind you, but fascinating. And the Feds have given 12 billion dollars to La. to rebuild, and the local powers that be aren’t using hardly any of it effectively. 12 Billion dollars. Yup, that sure is a piss poor response from the Feds, no doubt about it. :rolleyes:
You would be wrong then. Things in Mississippi aren’t back to the way they were before the storm, but they are light years better than things are in NO. They’re bitching because they are actually rebuilding and getting past the storm while NO, which isn’t doing either very well, gets the lion’s share of the money and attention. You might want to do a little research before you spout off next time. Jackson hosting a convention of that size? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (No offense to Jackson intended)
I don’t know how Barack and Hillary would handle the altitude, but Bill Richardson should be just fine.
Once again, you put words in my mouth. Two for two there, dave. You going to go for three? Nowhere did I say that the the current government is what the Founding Fathers would have wanted for the US. Ya remember what President number 1 said during his farewell address? “Avoid foreign entanglements.” Let’s see, if we’d followed that piece of advice I can think of at least one country we wouldn’t have gotten up to our ass in, can you? (Not to mention our involvement in things like WWI, WWII, Korea, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and shit, I’m going to stop now.) Hell, the Founding Father’s left provisions for slavery in the Constitution. Were we wrong to repeal those? Or is it possible that the Founding Fathers knew that the country was going to change over time and that the Constitution would have to be adapted to fit those changing needs? Gee, if only they had said something about that. Like, put in provisions for amending the Constitution, or if one of them, like say, Thomas Jefferson, had mentioned the possibility that it might be better to rewrite the laws every 20 years or so.
Ya got a cite for Mississippi being in better shape? Last I heard, folks there were bitching because they hadn’t got dick that the government had promised them. Neither had New Orleans. I assume Nagen and Blanco were responsible for all the FEMA trailers being parked in Arkansas? Even though that folks in the Gulf Coast need them? Or that nagen and Blanco ordered FEMA to hand out eviction notices to people who actually got their trailers and nothing else? Am I right? If so, I’m certain you’ll be able to provide cites backing that up. You being the expert and all.
Rolleyes aside Tucker, I personally would rather have the party I am supporting not act in the manner you outline. I felt the Republicans were pandering to the emotions of the nation when they went for New York. Just because they have done it before does not make it right.
Another note too, Mississippi and Louisiana are not swing states/battleground states. Colorado has been and so has Minnesota. Quite frankly, I think the Dems should have went for Ohio or Florida for the convention. Put your money where the need is. Colorado has fewer electoral votes and don;t they split theirs between both parties based on a percentage of the vote?
No party is above pandering for emotions when they think it’ll curry them votes. Og knows I wanted to puke every time I heard Hillary talk about, “think of the children!” Yeah, like how insulting it was to have that bracefaced little girl at the 04 convention lecturing about Dead Eye Dick Cheney using a bad word.
I’ll be surprised if the Dems don’t bring up Katrina at the 08 convention. It’s too tasty of a target.
Oh, and haven’t you been paying attention? The Dems can’t have their convention in Florida. ::: panicked handwaving::: It might get hit by a hurricane! ::: panicked handwaving::: Nor can I see them wanting to hold it in Ohio. Wasn’t it Milosevc, when he found out that a peace conference was going to be held there who made the comment about it being torture? Ohio’s just not sexy enough or something, I suppose. IMHO, holding the convention in some bland, middle of the road place like Ohio, and forcing everyone at the convention to mingle with the common folk would be a good thing for this country.
(You’re right about Colorado splitting their electorial votes. We should just get rid of that damned electorial college. That way an individual’s vote during the Presidential election will matter.)
Hmm. Did not know that. In any event its a moot point because the building where they have the convention will likely be pressured so the air is more like us flatlanders are used to.