The Six-Million-Dollar Host

Now the problems. In our post-9/11 era—and given the unpopularity of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq—security for the 2008 GOP convention was extremely tight. But in my opinion, there was a security overreaction. More than 800 people were put under arrest (796 charges were dropped). More than 40 of these people were working journalists. Mark Tracy, a bearded pacifist (probably his real offense) who is also a 28-year-old college anthropology teacher, was arrested as part of a “sweep.” He was held for almost two days before being released when charges were dropped. Some of the sweeps and mass arrests were caused by an overly restrictive ruling on how close to the convention site protestors were allowed to march. And there are several civil suits waiting in the wings to be brought by people who were detained by security forces of the state for no reason.

So this part of the convention experience could have been better, and as you’ll see at the end of this letter, we promise that it will be in the future. But let me just say that, given the political situation in 2008, the security response and civil liberties abuses, in my opinion, would’ve been worse in almost any other city (and they have been at conventions in almost every other city). I would point out that there was very little physical damage (news reports indicated two broken store windows). And from a civil liberties point of view—and equally important as the dissenters’ rights—the convention delegates’ rights to peaceably assemble in order to nominate their candidates for president and vice president were never interfered with.

So here is our conclusion: You should come to Minnesota in 2012! We suspect that one party (Governor Kaine) would’ve preferred a gathering here, and we know that the other party was pleased with its convention (although not the electoral outcome). Both of you can remedy this in the next presidential election. Come back—we’ll make the experience even better.

Sincerely Yours,

Vance K. Opperman
Your Bipartisan Host