No Greek Columns This Time

Democrats downsize convention again as donations dry up. 

In January the DNC announced it would be downsizing its national convention from four days to three. The first day, September 3rd, would instead be used to celebrate the region with a big NASCAR-themed kickoff event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It makes perfect sense given what a huge NASCAR fan the President is.

Late Monday, the DNC announced another convention downsizing. The big kickoff event would be moved from the Speedway to downtown Charlotte. According to spokeswoman Suzi Emmerling the move was prompted by concern over the logistics of shuttling people 18 miles to and from the track. Logistically it just makes more sense to have the kickoff downtown with the rest of the events.

Of course the Charlotte Motor Speedway hasn't moved since January, so why is this just becoming a problem now? Bloomberg News has the answer. "With a party ban on direct contributions from corporations, the host committee has raised less than $10 million, well short of its $36.6 million goal..." Ouch! Less than ten million is bad. It's also vague. How much less than ten million did they raise?