2008 RNC down to four cities

[dazzleman]

The Republicans met in New York City for far different reasons than what they would be meeting in Minneapolis for.  The Republicans were under no illusions that they had any chance to carry New York in the election.

The convention in New York City emphasized the President's and the party's national security credentials, an issue on which the President and the party were far ahead of Kerry and the Democrats at the time.

Besides, Minnesota is much closer to being winnable by the Republicans than is New York.  In 2004, the spread in New York was 18.29%, while in Minnesota the spread was only 3.48%.

Minnesota has gone from being a very strong Democratic state to nearly a swing state.  This state was once among the most Democratic of states, and now is toward the middle of the pack.  So it's not a bad idea for the Republicans to woo the state.

Of course, they met in Philly in 2000 and failed to carry Pennsylvania, despite it being a swing state.  So I don't know how much the location of conventions really affects the voting.

[dazzleman]

New Orleans, it would give them another chance to politicize national disasters.

^^ Stick with the tradition!  I'm somewhat of a traditionalist myself.  I don't want the Thanksgiving games to be taken from Detroit and Dallas, and I don't want the GOP to stop exploting dead people for political gain.

Doe the name Wellstone ring any bells?

True. 

The Democrats use of the Wellstone memorial for political purposes was a new low.

Shameful.

Except they didn't. It was a memorial for one of the most popular (in terms of how much his base liked him) senators of the past quarter-century; of course there were going to be people saying, "Let's win this election for Paul Wellstone." I don't see what is so bad about that. If you cram 15,000 die-hard Democrats into a building to commemorate one of the most tragic events of their lifetimes, they are going to express some emotion. Shame on the GOP for twisting the story.

Republicans who came to pay their respects to Wellstone were booed at and treated badly.  The problem with those people is that they hated their political adversaries more than they loved Wellstone, and it showed.

That's the problem with liberals today in a nutshell -- their hatred for many things far exceeds any positive ideas or feelings that they have.  The Wellstone funeral incident was an accurate illustration of that, and that is why it had the impact that it did.

You can blame Republicans for twisting the story if you like (I don't think they really did), but it would be healthier to address the problem that liberalism faces in offering positive ideas.