According to information in New York Times story today, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean has to be a major-league incompetent to have messed up the organization of the August Convention to this extent:
With the Denver convention less than two months away, problems range from the serious -- upwardly spiraling costs on key contracts still being negotiated -- to the mundane, like the reluctance of local caterers to participate because of stringent rules on what delegates will be eating, down to the color of the food. At last count, plans to renovate the inside of the Pepsi Center for the Democrats are $6 million over budget, which may force convention planners to scale back on their original design or increase their fund-raising goals.The convention is being organized by the Democratic National Committee, which is run by Howard Dean, with his chief of staff, the Rev. Leah D. Daughtry, leading the effort. Only in the last month has the Obama campaign been able to take over management of the convention planning with the candidate claiming the nomination, and his aides are increasingly frustrated, as the event nears, at organizers who they believe spent too freely, planned too slowly and underestimated actual costs.
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And then there is the food: A 28-page contract requested by Denver organizers that caterers provide food in "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple and white." Garnishes could not be counted toward the colors. No fried foods would be allowed. Organic and locally grown foods were mandated, and each plate had to be 50 percent fruits and vegetables. As a result, caterers are shying away. New York Times
Barack Obama is already taking over some essential decisions, like deciding to give his acceptance speech at an arena three times the size of the one chosen by the DNC. In similar situations, I haven't had the balls to just sideline everyone who's contributing to the chaos and start from scratch. But, that's what Barack Obama needs to do, and he needs to do it quickly.
He's not responsible for the chaos that reigned before he won the nomination, but everyone will hold him responsible for the Convention itself. Like a general taking over a battlefield strategy, Obama needs to arrive, put his people in the essential roles, and announce a plan that can win the battle. He has to do so in a way that leaves incompetent and impractical people feeling special about the contribution they've made.
But, you know what? The whole idea of a national convention may be anachronistic, since everything that needs to be decided HAS to be decided before the delegates get there.
Maybe Obama should just cancel major portions of the Convention, downsize it until it meets the available budget, and make what's left available on YouTube, where it will be seen by many more people than if it's just one television for a few hours.
Obama's candidacy is about "change", right? Well, here's an opportunity to show leadership in quickly sizing up a situation and making changes.
And while Obama's at it, he should either add 15 Black members to the state blog corps, or cancel that corps entirely. After all, this is the first time that bloggers would be on the floor of the convention with their own desks and computers and Internet connections right among the delegates on the floor. Maybe this is one of the extravagances that's pushing the cost of the Convention through the roof?
“We are now going into the final construction phase, and it is turning out to be much higher,” said a person with knowledge of the budget, but who is not tied to either the Obama campaign or the party. “So the Obama camp is not pleased and is raising questions about where all the money had been going. And they look at the posh office space for the Democratic Party staff here, which is really plush, and they say, ‘They spent the money on that?’ ”This last-minute scramble covers contracts to build the skyboxes, the podium and the news media center. The problems have forced organizers to consider — and reject — some cost-cutting proposals, like housing the media center in trailers or cutting out air-conditioning from the media tent. New York Times
We've been hearing a lot about state of the art media centers for bloggers at the Convention, and now we hear that there's doubt about how to pay for those media centers. We've heard that an all-white or virtually all-white 55-member state blog corps will have desks and computers on the floor of the Convention, among the delegates, and now we learn that the DNC has no idea how it will pay for this extravagance. The simple solution is to cancel it and thereby avoid the cost and the worldwide embarrassment that would result from going ahead with it. Put all bloggers in the general pool, where their accoutrements will be much less expensive.
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