Prominent Republicans, Lobbyists will skip Convention - Twin Cities not convenient enough

[Kire]

“Nobody likes a funeral,” said a Senate Republican press secretary who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing “the overall climate of general malaise about the party” as the reason for hesitance on the part of Republicans.

On the House side, according to a report in The Hill, during a July 31 conference call National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma discouraged congressional hopefuls from attending, saying that doing so would potentially be a “waste of time.”

At least a handful of Republican incumbents, ranging from vulnerable incumbents such as Jon C. Porter and Dean Heller, both of Nevada, to safe veteran members such as Jim Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin and Sue Myrick of North Carolina, have also decided to stay home this year.

<snip>

In 2004, D.C.-based conventioneers could zip in and out of New York City by train. The 2000 convention in Philadelphia was an even shorter ride.

St. Paul, by contrast, requires a flight halfway across the country from Washington — and, of course, the maddening hassle of air travel. The convention dates aren’t great either because opening day falls on Labor Day, which for parents marks the beginning of the school year.

More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12476_Page2.html

It's a nice place, especially when it's still warm out.

[Benhurst]

1. Yeah, but they have a great airport where Republicans can

practice their tap dancing.

[Blue_Tires]

3. zing!

[Vickers]

2. "the maddening hassle of air travel"

That they helped foster.

:eyes:

[n2doc]

4. Funny how they are so pessimistic

Given how "close" the polls are in the Prez race. One would think that they would be encouraged by this, especially with their ability to cage votes and jigger voting machine totals. Maybe they know something we don't?

[npk]

5. Not convenient enough! Lazy Republicans

If they can't drive their 4 ton gas guzzling foreign made SUV to it, they aint going.

:nuke:

[Political Heretic]

7. They do know something we dont - that the polls are bullshit.

So far, they've managed to run a campaign while keeping their biggest liability - McCain himself - mostly out of the direct public eye. After throwing everything at their opponent, he still leads - by about five points. Five points translates into an electoral trouncing. And that's before the real campaign season even begins.

They know what we've forgotten - the simply fact that McCain himself is that campaigns biggest liability while Obama himself is our campaigns biggest asset. The simple truth of the matter is, the more people see Obama directly and hear from him directly, the more they like him. While the more people see McCain directly and hear from him directly, the less they like him.

We're entering the home stretch where, no matter how much a campaign tries to avoid it, people are going to be seeing and hearing the candidates directly. No republican is predicting the current lead to lessen - they only expect it to widen, and widen dramatically, as we near the homestretch.

Don't mistake my comments for suggesting that we have it in the bag. Absolutely not. There is too much theft and trickery on the party of the GOP to promise that.

But the fact that Obama still holds onto a lead in this early stage, and that his "home court" is in the homestretch when Americans get to see and hear him directly more, plus the fact that Obama's ground game outmatches McCains 3:1 (3x as many field officers, and one of the best organized GOTV crews in history) means we have every reason to be hopeful.

[DFW]

6. Right. How clever of Democrats to hold their convention in a convenient DC suburb like Denver

[JaneQPublic]

8. They're just afraid of being seen going into the airport men's room (nt)

[qb]

9. What a shame... it won't be the big windfall

that sex workers in the region had anticipated.

[bullwinkle428]

10. Yes, I'm sure all of their reticence is GEOGRAPHY-related!

:eyes:

:rofl: