What Happened to All of the Fun?

When I first got elected, I spoke to David Parker, one of the DNC members from North Carolina and a fellow Fifth District resident. He said this would be an incredible event, full of fun with tons of events and parties to supplement the normal convention proceedings that you see on TV. Well, apparently some of that is not going to happen:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/politics/06convention.html?ex=1373083200&en=15c15e696e4eaee8&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

So, the first part of this post is to be greedy and whiny: I want to have fun! I'm sure I will, of course, but it sounds like there has been some major cost-cutting because of mismanagement of the convention.

That is disappointing not only because now I wonder what some our time will be filled with if most of these parties have been cancelled; I'm sure there will be plenty to do, including general tourist things in Denver, which I still would love to do.

This is also disappointing because it is feeding the perception that Democrats are not good at managing money. The article states briefly that the GOP convention is not disorganized at all and is on target and smoothly run. Not us. We are apparently requiring absurd things for the catering (NO FRIED FOOD!!! What will I eat?), getting ridiculous office space, and not making solid decisions. We need to be very concerned about this presentation to the general public as we ask them to allow our party to once again be the CEO of the nation.

On another note, it appears that Senator Obama wants to move his acceptance speech to the nearby Invesco Field as opposed to the Pepsi Center. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'm sure they'll make sure that those of us who made such a long trip to Denver will not have to fight 75,000 others for a spot to watch. This is also somewhat questionable because of the added cost:

http://campaigndiaries.com/2008/07/07/convention-watch-moving-obamas-speech-and-mccains-bush-dilemma/
(that is an EXCELLENT blog regarding elections, etc.)

So, to sum up, I really hope that not only do I get to have a good time at this convention, but that we as a party learn to really pick our battles and show the public that we can manage money and large projects well... you never know how this could play out come November.