The politics of seating

Posted at 1:12 PM on August 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Where the state delegations are assigned to sit is very much a reflection on how the party bosses view the relative importance of a state in the general election. Thanks to John Nicholson of MPR's End User Computing department, here's the first look -- stage left (or is that right?).

Pretty good seats; not particularly great; not on the floor, not like Illinois, which is front and center, and not like Delaware which -- after Joe Biden was added to the ticket -- got their seats moved to the front. They had been back near red-state Texas at the back of the hall. But the location at least suggests that Minnesota is again a swing state, although, perhaps, not as swingy as 2004 in Boston.

This is the view the delegation had back then:

Where does Minnesota fit in the big scheme of things, then? There are no "A List" (and frankly no "B" List types either) politicians who've been dispatched to speak to the caucus during the week. And the latest MPR poll has Obama up by 10 points in the state.

Contrast that with four years ago when there was real concern the state was about to turn a bright shade of red.

A couple of other shots from the floor today:

Are these two CNN anchors "texting" each other?

And someone had something to say about the security perimeter...

---

Comments (1)

The flowers are sweet.

Although, at first glance, I thought they were cotton bolls.

Posted by Elizabeth T. | August 24, 2008 6:44 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

E-mail Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor