Democratic Party Blows Convention Budget — And You Want Them To Run The Country?

Oh those Democrats.

Convention organizers hired the first-ever Director of Greening, longtime environmental activist Andrea Robinson. This was because Denver’s Democratic mayor, John Hickenlooper, challenged his party and his city to “make this the greenest convention in the history of the planet.”

Ms. Robinson hired an Official Carbon Adviser, who will measure the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, every plane trip, every appetizer prepared and every coffee cup tossed. The Democrats hope to pay penance for those emissions by investing in renewable energy projects.

There will be a 900 volunteer trash brigade who will hover at waste-disposal stations to make sure delegates put each scrap of trash in the proper bin.

Also No fried food and “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.” At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation.

All this comes at a cost and Sunday’s New York Times writes, Delays and Rising Costs for Convention Raise Worries for Democrats.

The renovations at the Pepsi Center are already 6 million dollars over budget. Their 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.

The Democratic National Convention Committee decided not to take cheap office space and instead rented top-quality offices in downtown Denver at $100,000 a month, only to need less than half the space, which it then filled with rental furniture at $50,000 a month.

The DNC is concerned that all these missteps will not only cost them lots of money, but will reflect badly on the party and raise questions about Democratic management skills. You think?

Just look at how well they’ve run Congress.

What is immediately apparent to me is the Democratic Convention is a microcosm of how the Democrats will try to run the country:

• Overbudget
• Over regulated
• Failed unrealizable plans

And you want them to run the country?

I think not.

Posted: 0130PT 07/07/08
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