Past time for another Kansas City convention

The bids to host the 2008 Republican National Convention are in, as of Monday, from Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City (again) and Tampa-St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, bidding closed Friday for the 2008 Democratic National Convention; cities in the running are New York (yet again), New Orleans, Denver and Minneapolis.
Which reminds us: Why not Kansas City, Mo., which hasn’t hosted one since the Republicans gathered there in 1976? Kansas City was among communities that looked into hosting the 2008 Republican convention but stopped short of a bid. Its mayor told The Kansas City Star Tuesday that GOP leaders didn’t think they could raise the needed $40 million or more in time, but are eyeing 2012.
Of course, one reason the Kansans who attended in 1976 have such fond memories is that it featured something unknown in conventions today: suspense. President Ford won the nomination with 1,187 votes, compared with Ronald Reagan’s 1,070.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

7 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted May 25, 2006 at 8:10 am | Permalink

    President Gerald Ford won the nomination with Kansas Senator Robert Dole as his vice presidential nominee. I attended and was one of the first to congratulate Robert Dole as he entered the doors of the Muehlbach Hotel in downtown Kansas City that evening, now some thirty years ago. It was a great convention.

    Remember, Gerald Ford never won a presidential election, instead being elevated to the presidency on the resignation of Richard Nixon.

  2. raptor
    Posted May 25, 2006 at 12:28 pm | Permalink

    Aren’t national conventions a tad “dated”? The outcome is already decided long before the convention. The time/effort spent on “platforms” is a waste as the “platforms” are pretty much ignored after the convention.

    Delegates trade in rumor and inuendo, reporters latch onto anything they can, and many people strut around acting like they are “important”.

    Nope..didn’t get that from tv..but live when I was at the 1984 Democratic National Convention..San Francisco. Thought it was silly…

    On the plus side, they are a rallying point for each party..so go ahead and have ‘em, just please do not televise them!

  3. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted May 25, 2006 at 12:33 pm | Permalink

    Gosh raptor, just ask holy joe lieberman about conventions…

    SUPPORT NED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Shocker'07
    Posted May 25, 2006 at 4:42 pm | Permalink

    Why the hell would ANYONE want to go to a convention in Kansas City, the asscrack of America??

  5. Ben Huie
    Posted May 25, 2006 at 4:57 pm | Permalink

    Gee ‘07, and you get upset when anyone says anything negative about YOUR town!

  6. Joe Williams
    Posted May 25, 2006 at 8:59 pm | Permalink

    Conventions are usually held in bigger cities than KC now.

  7. Shocker'07
    Posted May 30, 2006 at 10:06 am | Permalink

    Ben, if anyone would care to defend KC like I defend Wichita, I welcome their input.:-)