Schumer: NYC Should Host 2008 Dems Party

Sen. Charles Schumer urged Democrats Friday to hold their 2008 convention in New York City, which just a year ago hosted President Bush and the GOP's 2004 convention. Schumer, D-N.Y., head of the Senate Democrats' fundraising operation, sent a letter to Howard Dean, chair of the national party, urging him to pick the Big Apple.

``There is no doubt in my mind that New York's good fortune can launch a Democrat into the White House for the third time in 30 years,'' wrote Schumer. ``The 'Capital of the World' should be the starting point for Democrats to reclaim the capital of the United States and the White House in 2008.'' New York's other senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the most popular choice among her party to run for president in 2008. Her spokesman did not immediately comment Friday on the possibility of New York City hosting the convention.

The city launched unprecedented security measures, costing tens of millions of dollars, to host the Republican National Convention last year.Dean said Friday that the party's 2008 convention will be held from Monday, Aug. 25 through Thursday, Aug. 28, after the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Democrats will decide where they will hold the convention sometime after the 2006 midterm elections, party spokesman Josh Earnest said. Dean will appoint a committee to consider bids from various cities and come up with a recommendation, Earnest said. The late August date will allow the Democratic nominee to raise and spend private money for almost a month longer than in 2004, when Democrats held their convention in late July and formally chose a nominee. The Summer Olympics in Beijing are set to start Aug. 8 and run for about two weeks. Republicans have not yet announced the dates of their 2008 national convention and don't expect to announce them anytime soon. They will pick a site selection committee in January, said GOP spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_308162956.html

It'll drive out all the evil juju still left hanging around by the nastiness of the Repubs. idiot-fest last year. I just hope I get to move back to NY in time to revel in this.

I don't want to offend my NY friends, but this is the same shit they pulled in before when they announced that they wanted the convention in Boston. Kerry was nominated in Boston.

Now we got the people wanting a coronation in New York for Hillary. No way, no way!

Let's have the convention in Cleveland instead, in the great state of Ohio!

They will run on a platform of environmental issues, diplomacy/national security and integrity/open government.

I won't be complaining if they have the Dem convetion there in 2008. At least they won't be exploiting 9.11 like the Repugs did in '04.

I'd be very happy if the Democrats, Republicans, Olympians, and any other big-security, big-traffic-nightmare, big-street closure events would choose another city, any other city, so we can all go about our normal business (since these events have been money-losers for the chosen cities anyway).

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I don't think it would be worth it.

The Republicans already run on the Democrats being the party of no ideas and all that crap, why give them added ammunition.

I also agree with IndianaGreen that it's way to suspicious with Hillary being a favorite.

No offense to Chuck Schumer who is one of the few Democrats who actually has the balls to speak up frankly in front of a news camera, when many of his colleagues remain ominously & safely silent, so I'll cut him a break here. As a Manhattanite, I selfishly pray we don't have another convention here in New York City for the usual traffic/disruption/magnet-for-terrorism/expense/etc. reasons.

More to the point, American political "conventions" today are bloated, gross, wasteful, expensive Roman circuses & coronations where pre-ordained results are slickly packaged, marketed, photo-oped and televised for the relatively tiny group of conventioneers who actually attend, and for those people (sheeple?) in the general public who still watch them on TV or actually give a flying rat's ass (as we say in "New Yawk") about watching 10,000 inevitable, obligatory, red-white-and-blue fucking balloons come cascading down from the ceiling of the convention center like some gigantic pseudo-patriotic climax/orgasm, which is supposed to make our breasts swell with patriotic pride and our eyes well up with patriotic tears. We do NOT have to spend a gazillion dollars to accomplish what happens at the conventions. It can be done with minimal expense, but its now become an obscene "keep-up-with-the-Jones'-race". Somehow I don't think today's conventions are what the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) had in mind, but perhaps I'm wrong. Personally, I'd rather see the OBSCENE amounts of money lavished on the conventions re-directed to helping poor or homeless people, or perhaps donated to a fund to abolish the so-called, fucking, fascist "Patriot Act", or to purchasing armor for our troops in Iraq if they are still stuck there (thanks to scumbag Dubya) or to fighting Diebold and election fraud (electronic or otherwise), or any other number of crucial issues that imperil the Republic. Frankly, conventions don't mean shit if we are going to continue having election debacles like Florida, Ohio, etal.

I'd like to see something in the south or the midwest...or even the northwest.

Some place with lots of hotel space, major convnetion facilities, and union labor.

Just a hunch