July 22, 2004 - Boston braces for the Democrat’s convention next week preparing to meet the realities of a worst case scenario by locking down the city. New York’s turn comes in September when the Bush campaign’s minions arrive to read the script after the third anniversary of 9-11. The reality is that three years after the World Trade Center’s towers fell to the terrorists’ suicide mission Al Qaeda is still able to administer Bin Laden’s potent and lethal sting whenever and wherever the Sheik chooses. The reality is that neither President Bush nor Senator Kerry is much safer in their convention cities than the Marines and Soldiers are in Baghdad or Kabul.

Congress has appropriated $100 Million to provide security for the two parties’ National Conventions. Citizens of Boston can’t ride the MTA lest they join Poor Charlie in a ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston. There won’t be newspaper vending machines on those streets. That may be fortuitous because the roadside trash bins won’t be there either. Boston cops and firefighters will get a lot of overtime next week as the city locks down. Boston’s business will be hit with the costs of delays and dislocations. The public costs of putting on two shows with no suspense and no purpose will far exceed the money Congress has dedicated to the purpose.

It used to be that there was a purpose to these quadrennial conclaves. Radio made me an ear-witness when Strom Thurmond stalked out of the 1948 Democratic Convention. Four years later I could watch as static television coverage showed us the drama of a choice between Ike Eisenhower and Bob Taft. There was real suspense until the votes of the Wyoming delegation nominated Jack Kennedy. In 1968 the drama was in the streets of Chicago. None of that happens anymore. The nominees are always foreordained by the primary voters. The lukewarm and easily forgotten party platforms formulated to “energize the base” have been vetted and re-vetted through focus groups. Dissident demonstrators will be confined in cages. There will be no news and the networks have recognized it by reducing the coverage to a minimum.

There is simply no purpose served by the National Nominating Convention. No purpose, that is, unless you count furnishing targets to tempt Al Qaeda as a purpose. Nothing substantial will emerge in either New York or Boston unless there is an attack. The only suspense will be whether or not Bin Laden will strike. Nothing will be served by crowning the nominees in a balloon and band extravaganza that could not have been accomplish by a one-hour preemption of television time from the networks and cable news channels for each party to produce a studio special. Once the nominating conventions served an important political purpose. Now they do not. It is time to put a grand old tradition to rest. It has outlived its usefulness.