Monday, July 07, 2008

Why Invesco was announced today

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

There's a lot of speculation on why the Obama campaign announced the Thursday night shift to Invesco today. Marc Ambinder puts out two theories:

Certainly, the campaign noticed that John McCain would be in the city for a town hall, but I suspect that they also wanted to get this news out to tamp down stories of tension between the campaign and the DNC.
But I think there was a less political reason. The media walkthrough of the Pepsi Center, originally scheduled for June 19, and then postponed to much controversy, is taking place tomorrow, July 8. This is a logistics event, where representatives of the media get a tour of the facilities, and get questions answered about space, phones, credentials, and other behind-the-scenes issues. You can just imagine the chaos that would take place if the Invesco plans, first reported as a possibility here at DemConWatch last Thursday, had not been finalized by tomorrow. The media would be all over the DNCC, saying, "what good is this walkthrough if you're not even sure where your candidate willl be giving his acceptance speech". (They may say that anyway - we're very curious to find out if a tour of Invesco will be included tomorrow). But with the announcement today, the abuse the media throws at the DNCC tomorrow should be at more normal levels.