Let the lobbying begin.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch made its sell today for holding the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis in 2012, as party officials were in town touring the city.
The four finalists for the Democratic convention are St. Louis, Cleveland, Charlotte and Minneapolis.
Columnist Bill McClellan's argument for St. Louis? Chuck Berry lives there. Plus, Missouri is a swing state that President Obama narrowly lost in 2008 (the first time in decades Missouri hadn't picked the winner).
McClellan's column, titled "A little dirt-slinging to sway Democrats," also takes down the other contenders.
Cleveland and Charlotte are easy to write off. He takes two words to dismiss Cleveland: Lebron James. "The Democratic convention, live from Loserville!" he writes.
Charlotte is a non-starter because the city is home to Bank of America, the TARP-receiving, too-big-to-fail poster child.
As for Minneapolis? McClellan admits this is a tougher sell, but says that Gov. Tim Pawlenty's shot at the Republican nomination is a "deal-killer."
"Think how awkward it would be to hold a convention in the home state of your opponent," McCellan writes. "Furthermore, the Democrats would be holding a convention in a state they couldn't win in November. That's wasting a convention."
It's a good line, but here's the DFL counter argument: If Pawlenty's nomination swings Minnesota to the GOP, wouldn't having the convention in the Twin Cities give Obama a fighting chance in a state that never elected Pawlenty for governor with more than 50 percent of the vote?
But hey, at least we haven't been scarred with a Scarlet Letter from Lebron's departure.
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