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TITANIC MESSES

Democratic Convention Shaping Up To Be Pricey Organic Disaster

Paddle for your life, Barack Obama!It appears the Democrats have come up with an absurdly constipated boondoggle of a convention that will show Americans, once again, exactly why they don’t like electing Democrats. From the massive expense to the terrible lack of planning to the weird diktat about frigging food colors, this whole thing confirms everyone’s worst suspicions about Democrats being spendthrift hippies with the souls of incompetent Soviet bureaucrats. The reporting on this clusterfuck reads like the paranoid scribblings of Rush Limbaugh on a three-day Oxycontin bender. Let’s review the ridiculousness together.

  • The entire wretched event is completely behind schedule.
  • Democratic Convention staffers operate out of plush Denver digs while the budget runs over, and over, and over.
  • A disgusted Barack Obama has sent 10 staff members out to clean up this hopeless mess, although it might be too late.
  • Every caterer in Denver hates the Democrats because they have demanded an inexpensive organic rainbow of locally grown food on every plate.
  • There are no hotel rooms even for reporters from respectable national publications.

Basically, this is the gazillion-dollar nanny state writ large and a huge embarrassment for Obama and every other sane Democrat. Meanwhile, the Republican National Convention will be held in an abandoned Bingo hall and will feature a menu of creamed corn, green bean casserole, and packets of ketchup dissolved in water to make “tomato soup.” It will be wildly successful.

Delays and Rising Costs for Convention Raise Worries for Democrats [New York Times]


10:05 AM on Mon July 7 2008
By Sara K. Smith
5926 Views

  1. nbawriter says at 10:10 am, July 7th, 2008

    Clearly if Obama is sending staffers, it is a Hope-filled mess.

    I know it’s Monday morning, Sara … but get it the fuck together.

  2. Doglessliberal says at 10:11 am, July 7th, 2008

    If they really want to make it green, just give everyone a call in # and do a ginormous conference call. Almost zero carbon used on that one, though the local prostitution industry might suffer.

  3. Fferret says at 10:12 am, July 7th, 2008

    Oh, the opportunities for snark are endless!

  4. EnBuenOra says at 10:14 am, July 7th, 2008

    This is truly shocking. Every other major mass meeting, convention, and gathering is always run 100% perfectly and accurately and on time and under budget. This is a shocking insult to John McCain’s service record and integrity.

  5. choinski says at 10:14 am, July 7th, 2008

    “inexpensive organic rainbow of locally grown food on every plate” - in Denver, isn’t that cattle? ….mmmm…. You can taste the carbon footprint.

  6. nbawriter says at 10:14 am, July 7th, 2008

    The GOP convention will be powered by wind … provided by Larry Craig blowjobs.

  7. WadISay says at 10:20 am, July 7th, 2008

    At least the band on the Titanic worked.

  8. ForeignSickSpecialist says at 10:21 am, July 7th, 2008

    Just wait until the event at the Bronco’s football stadium is finalized. Then it will be Coors and Dogs for e’rbody!

  9. JamesMichaelCurley says at 10:21 am, July 7th, 2008

    Still has to go a long way with the Republican 2004 convention when they first wanted to house all the delegates in a cruise ship docked in the Hudson River. Truely a ‘Ship of Fools’.

  10. gurukalehuru says at 10:24 am, July 7th, 2008

    The balloons! Where are the fucking balloons! Why aren’t you dropping the fucking balloons!

  11. RuperttheBear says at 10:27 am, July 7th, 2008

    Me, I’m thinking “Arby’s.”

  12. Advocatus_Diaboli says at 10:31 am, July 7th, 2008

    I hear that the largest cost so far is the 17-mile tunnel being constructed for Bill Clinton to walk through a la 2000.

  13. Botswana Meat Commission FC says at 10:37 am, July 7th, 2008

    hors d’oeuvres = Rockey Mountain oysters

  14. ManchuCandidate says at 10:41 am, July 7th, 2008

    Sounds like Hils is running the Con.

  15. Yes let’s blame the democrats for a lack of hotel rooms. The supreme central committee’s 5-year economic plan did not foresee the need to build new hotels in Denver.

    They ought to double up. But it should be one Bitter + one Gansta per room. Let the lovin begin

  16. Truculent says at 10:46 am, July 7th, 2008

    But the DNC spox says everything is fine and “right where we should be right now.” Translation — we’re fucked beyond belief. Plus, this food thing just gave every comedian and talk show blabbermouth an endless supply of material.

  17. nbawriter says at 10:47 am, July 7th, 2008

    If hotel space is a problem, I hear there’s a big sale on FEMA trailers …

    … and TruckNutz!

  18. teebob2000 says at 10:48 am, July 7th, 2008

    ForeignSickSpecialist: More like tofu dogs and a *sassy* Chardonnay.

  19. So much for leading by example, and the Nancy Pelosi-like haste to fix it.
    Locally grown food? There isn’t much a chef can do to doctor pine needles and grass.

    RuperttheBear:
    Me too.

    Botswana Meat Commission FC:
    So bad.

  20. demtard says at 10:52 am, July 7th, 2008

    ManchuCandidate: Beat me to it.

  21. Call the whole fucking thing off. I can’t stomach extravagananzic celebrations of self and this is gonna be a doozey.

  22. upperleft says at 10:55 am, July 7th, 2008

    Get the Hog Farm and The Rainbow Family to cater the thing.
    Have Willie Nelson sing the National Anthem. Encourage couch surfing
    and Craig’s List rooms. Back to ‘68! “The whole world is blogging!!!”

  23. shortsshortsshorts says at 10:58 am, July 7th, 2008

    Why don’t they use McDonalds for catering? It is, after all, 100% beef now.

  24. Well, no one really wants to be confronted with lime green mashed potatoes.

    Also, why can’t they just leave the basketball court in place? Barry could make a slam dunk for each plank in the platform, as ’twere.

  25. ForeignSickSpecialist says at 11:22 am, July 7th, 2008

    teebob2000: Start an immediate campaign on Obama’s website chastising him for moving to the center, whereas he was pro tofu and chardonnay, now he has always been down with Dogs and Coors. Waffles anyone?

  26. “How could we have all died at the same time?”
    “The salmon mousse.”
    “Darling, you didn’t use canned salmon, did you?”
    “I’m most dreadfully embarrassed.”

  27. MoodProcessor says at 11:25 am, July 7th, 2008

    Tese guys could fuck up a wet dream.

  28. Guppy06 says at 11:27 am, July 7th, 2008

    I’m sure New Orleans could have used a DNC that went massively over budget. Of course, that’s how everything works in Louisiana, but still.

    But it’s nice to know that the Democrats are demonstrating their ability to stop the free-fall spending that’s been the hallmark of the Bush administration.

  29. graceless says at 11:38 am, July 7th, 2008

    An opportunity for bed and breakfasts, me thinks.

  30. thefrontpage says at 11:43 am, July 7th, 2008

    These idiotic conventions are nothing but huge wastes of time, money, effort, resources, staff, money, time, money, and more money. They should be two-day meetings with the only main news being the official nomination of the presidential candidate. Forget the idiotic speeches, the stupid “roll calls,” the DUMB costumes and hats, the moronic people, the stupid politicians giving boring, stupid speeches, and the wastes of taxpayer money on police, security, resources, utilities, and everything else. They are just huge piles of stinking crap–and everyone knows it. These things ceased being relevant about 50 years ago.

  31. donner_froh says at 11:44 am, July 7th, 2008

    The Demoncrats have public fights about who spent the money, what color the food should be and the true meaning of “green” while the Ruthuglicans scurry around behind closed doors, trying to keep McCain from changing the platform to an update of “Critique of the Gotha Program”.

    I know which one I want to watch.

  32. donner_froh says at 11:53 am, July 7th, 2008

    thefrontpage: But look at the positive side–the local economic benefits.

    No-diamond whores will be getting top dollar, boosting their self-esteem as well as their pocketbooks; fleabag motels can quadruple their rates for a week or two, so the owners and possibly even some of the employees will be able to increase the remittances they send to the povertry stricken tropical hellholes they emigrated from; good looking bartenders of either sex/gender will be forced to hire Brinks trucks to get their tip money home at the end of each shift.

  33. Doglessliberal: That’s brilliant. The workaround for the disenfranchised prostitutes is to give them tax credits to transition them to phone sex workers. Safer gig anyway.

  34. teebob2000 says at 11:59 am, July 7th, 2008

    ForeignSickSpecialist: Ah, you can take the black man out of the elitist South-side neighborhood, but you can’t take the elitist South-side neighborhood out of the black man!

    I’m down with a ice cold 40
    http://www.beerpal.com/Steel-Reserve-211-High-Gravity-(8.1)-Beer/9876/ and some ribtips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f106jouT9Ik !!

  35. teebob2000 says at 12:00 pm, July 7th, 2008

    teebob2000: Who the fuck used parenthesis in their web addresses????

    Try this one…

    http://www.beerpal.com/Steel-Reserve-211-High-Gravity-Beer/9876/

  36. Truculent says at 12:02 pm, July 7th, 2008

    thefrontpage: Amen, amen, amen. In my ournalism days I was forced to endure several of these enormous mutual masturbation sessions and drag “news” out of all the stupidity. Do the whole thing by videoconference as suggested above and enjoy the summer instead. The tedium of listening to the deputy county clerk of some town in Arkansas blab on, “The great state of Arkansas, hillbilly heaven, where Bill Clinton first got laid in a pickup truck, etc.” would drive even a Paultard around the bend.

  37. Doglessliberal says at 12:08 pm, July 7th, 2008

    snig: perfect!

  38. graceless says at 12:15 pm, July 7th, 2008

    I read the Times piece, it really does look like HRC and her people were all over that mess.

  39. Lascauxcaveman says at 12:42 pm, July 7th, 2008

    Borat: They ought to double up. But it should be one Bitter + one Gansta per room. Let the lovin begin.

    HA HA!

    (and Ewwww)

  40. Guppy06 says at 12:49 pm, July 7th, 2008

    donner_froh: Speaking of employees benefiting from the convention, are Democrats or Republicans better tippers?

  41. Quacker says at 12:55 pm, July 7th, 2008

    thefrontpage:

    What? You you don’t enjoy schadenfruede when the confetti doesn’t fall? I live for those moments. Also there’s always the opportunity for a Zell Miller incident, and I certainly wouldn’t want to miss that….

  42. Quacker says at 12:59 pm, July 7th, 2008

    Ack! …schadenfreude…..

  43. “Democrats being spendthrift hippies with the souls of incompetent Soviet bureaucrats”

    That’s actually pretty accurate, and I’m a Democrat.

  44. ForeignSickSpecialist: Actually, the Broncos play at Invesco Field (at mile high, just to please the silly locals). That one baseball team that shocked anyone by doing, well, anything, plays at Coors Field, which is about a ten minute walk.

    But Invesco? Seriously? They once had money for that shit?

  45. NedPepper says at 1:22 pm, July 7th, 2008

    Does anyone else here sense we are going to screw the pooch on the convention and blow the election?

  46. madirishman says at 1:27 pm, July 7th, 2008

    Truculent: Political conventions always make me cringe. My high-school speech-and-debate students give better speeches. Politicians always violate the three basic rules of public speaking: 1)Be interesting, 2)Make a point, and 3)BE BRIEF! After 10 minutes, nobody is listening.

    Of course, the only reason the networks broadcast the conventions is because they’re begging God for a train-wreck like Zell Miller or Elizabeth Dole’s weird little bit of Stepford Wife theatre. They have to have SOMETHING bizarre to analyze, since the speeches are canned and wretched.

    Personally, I’d love to get all the delegates liquored up and turn them loose on the arena floor. Bump any two of them together, let them exchange insults, and watch the brawl begin! Now THAT would be television worth watching! It would give a whole new meaning to the term “floor fight”.

  47. madirishman says at 1:33 pm, July 7th, 2008

    NedPepper: Oh, the Democrats will definitely screw up the convention, but the election is still up in the air. I agree with the model proposed before the 2004 election:

    If more than 115 million people vote, then Hopey wins.

    If less than 115 million people vote, then 4 years of Walnuts.

    Democrats, vote early and often!

  48. Borat says at 4:45 pm, July 7th, 2008

    Servo: now if this were Boulder not Denver locally grown would produce some results. I know, I grew up there and dont remember anydang.

    last time i was there i decided to be a veggietarian for the weekend. you can actually do that in boulder and its good. but you end up fartin a lot cause of da beanz. a damn lot. i mean a methane producin alot

  49. alwaysright says at 5:58 pm, July 7th, 2008

    If they can’t run a convention, they can’t run a country.

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