Wasn't it a few years ago when, after New York had experienced 9/11, one of our major political parties decided to hold its 2004 convention in the Big Apple as a sign of national solidarity with the wounded city? Flash forward to today, when the Presidential Debate Commission informs New Orleans it isn't "ready" to hold a Presidential Debate next year. Yes, the two parties have already decided the city doesn't deserve a convention, but that may just be down to how much money the winning cities ponied up for the privilege. But not ready? The city has just hosted two back-to-back major conventions, it will host two major college football games within a week, including the BCS championship and, oh, by the way, apropos of controlled chaos, the city has easily and safely hosted two Mardi Gras events since Katrina. David Stern, president of the NBA, long since knew the importance of supporting the city's recovery, engineering the league's decision to hold next February's NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. What is it the Presidential Debate Commission, and its associated pols, don't get about expressing solidarity with a city critically wounded by the malfeasance of the federal government? If the Army Corps of Engineers were headed by Bin Laden, would that make New Orleans "ready"?
UPDATE (11-21): Check out Lolis Elie's column on the debate snub in today's Times-Picayune.
If y'all wanted George impeached, you should have started that 4 years ago.
HARRY RESPONDS: You keep asking the same question, with the same answer already firmly in mind. If you're so curious, first, read up on what really happened. It wasn't a hurricane. Read "The Storm" and "Path of Destruction". Second, come down and see the place for yourself. Decide whether sitting thousands of miles away and casting judgment on the lives of a million people is a smart idea.
The kabuki theater "debates" (and I use that word reservedly, since they are more "joint news conferences" than debates in the forensic sense of the word) are all about clever "zingers" and spin and have virtually no relevance. I'm not sure where discussion of New Orleans fits in to that picture.[*]
Ratings have consistently declined, with the exception of 1992, when the inclusion of third party candidate Ross Perot actually made them momentarily interesting, if only from a comedic point of view. The Debate Commission won't make that mistake again.
The Dem's saturation schedule of debates this year will no doubt exacerbate this trend (oh, no, not *another* debate).
http://www.museum.tv/debateweb/html/equalizer/stats_tvratings.htm
Barring some unexpected event, I would not be surprised to see ratings dipping below 20 this year.
If the siting of the debates *is* about symbolism, I find Mr Elie's dismissal of Oxford, Mississippi, interesting. James Meridith might take issue with the statement "... [T]he great issues of the nation do not express themselves as forcefully on the streets of Oxford...".
If anything, I find the fact that all the sites, with the exception of Saint Louis, are to the *east* of the Mississippi River (and Saint Louis is so close to the river as to be indistinguishible) to be most curious.
One point on which I do agree with Mr Elie: "... [W]e probably never will know why the commission chose as it did. In this great democracy of ours, such important matters are kept secret."
That is reprehensible.
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[*] Not that I agree with shoving the subject under the rug.
HARRY RESPONDS:So, judging by your James Meredith standard for relevancy, New Orleans will be a suitable site for a debate in about forty years?
All that being said, I feel compelled to make a clarification: Gov. Ryan is the only former governor of IL in recent years to be sent to prison for corruption, not the last three governors, as you noted. Jim Edgar, Jim Thompson and our current gov, G-Rod, remain at large. They all may be corrupt, but only Ryan got caught (and even then he really only got caught being corrupt in his capacity as Secretary of State, not as Governor; make of that what you will).
HARRY RESPONDS: FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:
"Ryan was the third former Illinois governor in the past three decades to be convicted of federal felonies. Otto Kerner was found guilty in a racing-stock scandal; Dan Walker was convicted of corruption involving bank loans."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002936731_ryan18.html
The repubs need their priorities put in some kind of sensible order and figure out why most of the corruption and perverts are within their party.
Perhaps, the repubs should hold their convention in Baghdad since that has been this administrations first priority over N. Orleans.
I just got back from five days in New Orleans, where I took part in the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. It was wonderful. Every local person I met was friendly and helpful. I felt safe walking around day and night, and I felt welcomed. I also heard some great blues.
By the way, I love Le Show, listen every week.
Kind regards, Mark Baker
Call it the "Moe Howard theory of governing."
The 2004 GOP convention was a thumb in New York's eye. (So, for that matter, was 9/11.) And New York is full of liberals, Jews and homos -- so its eye is particularly thumbworthy.
New Orleans, on the other hand, has already had a big fat thumb stuck in its eye. As an added plus, thumbs also went in the eyes of many of the groups noted above at the same time. Thus, New Orleans has served its purpose, and merits no further consideration or concern.
So you see, there is really no discrepancy between the treatment of the two venues.
They seem to ignore the idea that Customers are needed to make all that money work. And from what I understand, the Customers are being skipped over and well, actively POISONED by FEMA.
Maybe the REAL game is to depopulate that area of "po' folks" and repopulate it with ocean-view condos.
Ya think?
HARRY RESPONDS: If that's their plan for New Orleans, they may have to wait about a hundred years for oceanfront property to be part of the city.
they also don't care to have we proles reminded of that same failure.
even if NOLA were to blame for the failure of the levees(which it is not), that is still no reason to leave it to rot while we persue useless wars on "terrorism" and "drugs".
perhaps the third party presidential candidates should hold their own debate in NOLA to remind everyone.
"Defend America Defund the Wars"
Note all the quotes in the article from a person directly involved in lobbying the organizers and with a direct interest in the outcome.
I'd like to see more detail on the reasoning of the organizers, including statements therefrom, before passing any judgement.