Dean: Logistics more important than politics

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Howard Dean says logistics and money are more important than politics when deciding which city will get the 2008 Democratic National Convention:

Denver would be a better political choice than New York to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention, but the decision will primarily boil down to logistics and money, Howard Dean and other national Democratic Party officials said Thursday. "There might be some political message we want to send by where we send the convention, but by far the most important thing is that the convention be run right," Dean, the party's national chairman, said at a breakfast roundtable Thursday.

"You've got to have a successful convention," Dean said, "so the nitty-gritty - raising money, transportation, hotels - becomes more important than any political message you might get out of it." Dean declined to say which city in contention, New York or Denver, would send the better political message. But New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who appeared with Dean as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said it was clearly Denver. "The natural political advantage is Denver," Richardson said. "It's not just Denver and Colorado; it's about the West."

Dean also joked that Richardson had been twisting his arm to get him to send the convention to Denver. "Did you see I only had one arm?" he said.

Sounds like Richardson has put a lot of pressure on Dean.