Posts Tagged ‘Romney’
You may have heard that both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee have Phoenix on their short list for possible convention sites in 2012.
The RNC has done its walk-through of the three cities on the short list: Phoenix, Tampa and Salt Lake City.
How Salt Lake City got on the short list is a mystery to me. Conventions are typically held in either very convenient locations (by that I mean weather and amenities) or in politically important locations.
Let’s review the last four conventions for each party (I decided to go back four because those are the four I’ve attended).
In 1996, the GOP Convention was held in San Diego. Given the destination spot, it had lots of downtown hotel space and second-to-none weather. The Democrat Convention was held in Chicago, clearly a great venue and in an important state electorally.
2000 saw Republicans in Philadelphia, since Pennsylvania was critically important, and the Democrats were in Los Angeles, following the RNC’s San Diego reasoning of weather and amenities.
In 2004, in a post-9/11 world, the Republicans were in New York, which made a lot of sense.
Democrats in 2004 held their convention in Boston, which worked out well for Massachusetts Senator and Democrat nominee John Kerry. It’s pretty rare that a convention is held in the home state of the nominee (Boston was selected by the DNC in 2002, long before the Democrats settled on a nominee.) The last time that happened was in 1992 when the GOP held it’s convention in Houston and George Bush was the nominee (and yes, that was likely juiced, given that he was the presumptive nominee.)
The 2008 GOP Convention was in Minneapolis (or was it St. Paul?). Logistically, it was a disaster. It was picked because the mid-west was considered important electorally, but it couldn’t have been more of a hassle when it came to accommodations and events. The weather was fine, but it didn’t make up for the hassle-factor.
Democrats held their 2008 convention in Denver, which from a weather standpoint had to be great. Not sure how the accommodations worked out. It was also a good move politically, as Colorado has gone from red to blue in recent years.
So, given the balance among factors of political importance, accommodations and weather, how do the three GOP finalists stack up?
Salt Lake City should be written off. If the GOP picks a deep red state like Utah and the convention follows a second failed attempt for the nomination by Mitt Romney, it’s going to be awkward with a capital A.
Tampa has a lot of appeal politically. Florida remains a critically important state in the Electoral College count. Given that Tampa was passed over in 2004 and 2008, they have probably fixed whatever shortcomings in accommodations that they might have had. And, while a bit warm and muggy, it wouldn’t be too bad weather-wise.
That brings us to Phoenix. The hometown. A convention would be awesome, right? In reality, we need to think twice about this.
First of all, is there any place hotter in August than Phoenix? Well, yes, Death Valley is hotter, but that’s why it has the word “death” in its name. Additionally, Phoenix doesn’t have the downtown infrastructure that would sustain conventioneers and the convenience of proximity to the convention floor, hotel rooms and events. Besides, why do we want to bring people from every state in the nation and have them end up hot, tired and miserable? What are the chances they come back?
The Phoenix Business Journal ran this story last week. The thing that jumped out at me was this paragraph:
Earlier in the day, RNC members toured US Airways Center, the potential site for the convention; the Phoenix Convention Center, which would house administrative offices; and the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel and J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa.
Hold on. The J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge may well be Arizona’s premiere destination resort. But that’s the problem – it’s a destination resort 21 miles from downtown Phoenix. No one, really, wants to stay 21 miles away from the convention activity.
Which brings me to the beef that I have had with downtown boosters for years. When people think of Arizona for vacation, travel and conventions, they think golf, horseback riding, jeep trips, hiking and Sedona. They don’t think urban jungle.
We should embrace what makes us great as a destination: Arizona every month of the year except June, July and August. (Unless you are going to the mountains.) When people come to the Valley of the Sun, they want to be here when it’s -5 degrees back home and they can call their friends from the 14th tee and brag about living the good life. This is why places like the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge are so successful – because they provide what people really want.
So, let the Democrats pick Phoenix. I’d rather be in Tampa in August 2012.
Today was Sarah Palin’s last day as Governor of Alaska. Some on both the right and the left have written her political obituary.
The left, particularly radical feminists, hate her with a passion because she breaks all kinds of stereotypes they want to force on women. She’s beautiful, married to a real man, has kids (more than one or two!), chose life for her Downs Syndrome child and hunts. She’s their worst nightmare!
And that’s why she’ll be back. She is going to have rock star status on the GOP circuit for years to come, and at the right time, she’ll emerge as a contender. Of course, guys like Romney and Huckabee and Jindal all hope that emergence is far into the future (if at all).
However, I think it’s tough for the GOP to have long term credibility if we don’t have strong and attractive female candidates at the upper echelon of our party.
Don’t count her out yet.
With Utah Governor Jon Huntsman on his way to China, I pontificated about the political brilliance of Barack Obama in a piece posted on The New Ledger.
Here are a some excerpts.
His latest stroke of brilliance his is appointment of Gov. Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to China. Huntsman had begun to make noises about the possibility of running for President in 2012. He is one of the most popular governors in the nation. He was an early supporter of John McCain’s run for President (a major blow to fellow LDS member, Mitt Romney) and McCain could have easily turned his entire operation over to Huntsman, giving him instant national infrastructure reach. Huntsman also has piles and piles of money (by some measures more than Romney) to fund a serious operation for a presidential run.
All that came to a screeching halt when Obama tapped Huntsman for Ambassador to China. Yes, the argument can be made that Huntsman would have been ill-suited for the Republican primary process, but so was McCain, and he ended up the nominee. Huntsman would have put enormous counter-pressure on Romney because he would be better funded, “more” LDS (Huntsman is from Utah, not Massachusetts; he has not flip-flopped fundamental Republican positions), and none of the disadvantages of being a child of politics (his father has never admitted being “brainwashed” by the U.S. military).
***
Obama and his advisors have bought into the idea that if the Republican Party is going to survive and regain power that it needs to promote “moderate” leaders. It is why the Democrat talking point has been to claim that Rush Limbaugh is the head of the party. It is their calculation that a principled, conservative party is a dying breed. In Huntsman, Obama and his political advisors saw a real threat, a “big tent” Republican.
So Obama did what any good street-fighting Chicago pol would do — he co-opted his potential rival.
***
In short, Obama did himself a favor by appointing Huntsman as Ambassador to China. He took a potential opponent out of the mix, and got one of the most qualified people in the nation as Ambassador to China.
Proving once again that he has real political skill, Obama has selected Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to China, which was announced Saturday at the White House.
This is a brilliant move by Obama, co-opting a potential (albeit long shot) challenger and putting probably one of the most qualified people in the nation in that position.
Of course this move affects me personally because it ruins a “plugged-in” I submitted to the Arizona Republic for publication on Sunday. Here is what I wrote:
There is buzz about Utah Governor Jon Huntsman being a candidate for the GOP nomination for President in 2012. The person most unhappy about this development is former Gov. Mitt Romney, who has made it abundantly clear that he is planning a re-run for the GOP nomination. Or maybe Romney is not unhappy, but welcomes this development, because Huntsman is “more” LDS (he’s actually from Utah, and has always been pro-life) and will divert fire away from Romney. To wit, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe says he fears Huntsman more than any other Republican. I’m not sure I buy that, but it shows that it’s going to be a long 3 ½ years.
I guess Plouffe really was nervous about Huntsman, and so they got him out of the way.
