Denver Tries to Sell New Look to Democrats for '08 Convention

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Denver Tries to Sell New Look to Democrats
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: December 3, 2006

....if Denver prevails this time — a decision is expected by the end of the year — party members from around the country say it will probably be by virtue of a polished and highly organized effort to turn the city’s lemons into lemonade. A new location, Denver’s convention-bid organizers have argued to the party hierarchy, is precisely what the Democrats need.

The Rocky Mountain West, they say, is competitive politically and could decide the next presidency, with ranks of disaffected Republicans ripe for the picking and resurgent Democrats ready to be mobilized.

New and newly empowered Democrats across the region, like Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who vaulted to majority leader with last month’s election, and Senator-elect Jon Tester of Montana, whose election helped swing the chamber, have been enlisted to cheer for Denver as well. A Western convention, they say, would bring recognition to a part of the country long taken for granted as the parties focused on the Midwest and the South.

Some political experts question whether the traditionally Republican West is really up for grabs. Frustration with the Iraq war and the big budget deficits run up by Republicans in Washington in recent years, they say, may have made the Democrats a temporary fling for Western voters in the last few elections rather than a permanent love.

And New York has some powerful allies, including both its Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton....But party members across the country say that there is no doubt that Denver has hit on a potent combination of economic development goals and political ambition. A convention with 30,000 eating, drinking, hotel-room-using Democratic partiers and journalists would inject perhaps $160 million into the local economy, organizers say, and at the same time crown the city as an unquestioned capital of the interior West — and the two goals are in sync....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/us/03convention.html

[LTR]

1. I think Denver is a great choice

A former red state gone blue.

Take that, GOP!

[left is right]

2. I don't think Denver should get the Dem convention

because of the voter suppression/disenfranchisement--55 vote centers instead of local precincts. But that goes for any city in any state that monkeys with the right of its citizens to participate in free elections

[rockymountaindem]

4. That was an honest mistake

And besides, the whole city is run by Democrats. We'd only be punishing ourselves.

[BlueManDude]

3. Kennedy brought it Boston - how'd that work out? They'd be fools to do NYC

just because of Schumer and Hillary and Rangel.

[justinrr1]

5. Denver

Denver would be great but we all know they are going to pick NYC.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. What are the lemons

That Denver is trying to turn into lemonade?

Maybe I missed the specifics, but I didn't see the lemons listed in the article.

[blondeatlast]

7. Lemons: Red state, not urban, not south, not east.

As a western red-stater, I'd love to see the convention in Denver.

Lemonade: appeal to a non-traditional base in all cases.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. Sorry, I didn't phrase the question properly

I didn't mean what could be considered the lemons, but what was the writer referring to? I didn't see his list.

[blondeatlast]

9. No worries. I just posted what I think Denver would consider the lemons

that Denver can turn into lemonade. :hi: