Go West

Courtesy of Kos, I'm pleased to hear that the Democrats will hold their 2008 convention in Denver.

Hotline has the scoop:

Colorado is a marquee states for Democrats, who have, in the past two years, gobbled up the governor's mansion, control of the state legislature, and two congressional seats.

But Denver's bid was shot through with holes from the start. The first technical submission was greeted with dismay by party regulars; revised bids were better. Labor unions threatened to balk unless Denver began to unionize its hotels; others wanted to extract compromises from the DNC and the state about union participation. The DNC worried about whether Denver could raise the $50 million necessary to stage the marquee event for the '08 Dem nominee. Promises by out of state governors to raise millions were greeted skeptically.

Kos details the ways in which the problems were addressed, but the upshot is that the Democrats under Dean have made a smart choice. The West and Southwest are and will continue to be the major growth region for the party, and anything we can do to make ourselves better known there is a good move.

Plus, as someone who's dreading the prospect of Hillary Clinton as the nominee -- not just because she's a DLC centrist, but because I'd love to break the Bush-Clinton-Bush dynastic cycle -- holding the convention in someplace other than New York City will diminish her campaign at least a little bit.