What Happens if Democrats Have to Cancel Their July Convention Due to Coronavirus?
If Republicans have to cancel their national convention in August, it would disappoint many people but it wouldn’t matter nearly as much, politically.
The Coronavirus crisis has shut down public life, and bans on large gatherings could extend well beyond the end of April. The 2020 Democratic National Convention is scheduled for July 15th. What happens if it has to be canceled?
Given the number of people involved, rescheduling it for a later date would be a nightmare. Canceling it could be a political disaster. What if they hold it and people get sick?
David Siders of Politico looks at the big political picture of the Democrat effort to oust Trump in the age of Coronavirus:
How coronavirus blew up the plan to take down Trump
For many Democrats, it’s the election of a lifetime. Yet the question preoccupying the party for several days this month was whether their presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden, could get the webcast working in his rec room.
It was a telling obsession, one that revealed the extent of the party’s anxiety as it comes to a nail-biting conclusion: Despite all the arguments Democrats have crafted and all the evidence they have amassed against Donald Trump, his reelection is likely to rise or fall on his handling of the coronavirus crisis and its fallout alone.
“It’s the most dramatic example I can think of in my lifetime about how you cannot control the agenda,” said Les Francis, a Democratic strategist and former deputy White House chief of staff in the Carter administration.
The most fascinating part is when Siders focuses on the Democratic convention:
One problem for Democrats is that the nation’s battle with coronavirus — and Trump’s position at the center of it — may go on for months. The party’s marquee political event, the Democratic National Convention, scheduled for July, is the subject of contingency planning in case the coronavirus still precludes large crowds from gathering. DNC officials said last week that planning is moving forward for the Milwaukee event. But many Democrats are doubtful — and fearful of a worst-case scenario in which the pandemic upends the Democratic convention, but not the Republican gathering the following month.
“It matters for this reason,” said Bob Mulholland, a DNC member from California. “That Thursday night speech by our nominee could be seen by 50 to 60 million Americans, most of them who haven’t paid a minute of attention to the primary. That’s the conversation that takes us to winning.”
He said, “If we have to cancel and Trump has a convention with 40,000 people screaming and yelling … that’s an advantage to Trump, because nobody saw us except some text they got, and then they watched Trump.”
Jay Jacobs, chairman of the New York Democratic Party, suggested last week that Democrats should at least consider putting their convention off until late August. Even if the coronavirus pandemic has eased by late spring, he said, “everybody’s going to be absolutely exhausted.”
Would Democrats try to hold the event remotely on television and the internet with people making speeches in studios? Joe Biden has already proved this is not one of his strong suits.
What happens if Biden still doesn’t have the required number of delegates? Will they try to settle this with the voting app that failed them during the Iowa primary? So many things could go wrong.
No convention would mean no speeches from Obama, Warren, Bernie, or celebrities. The adoring media coverage of those speeches would also be non-existent.
If Republicans have to cancel their national convention in August, it would disappoint many people but it wouldn’t matter nearly as much, politically.
There wouldn’t be any dispute over the nominee, and as an incumbent, Trump has the advantage of near constant media exposure.
This March 14th tweet from the Democratic Convention’s official Twitter account is the most recent word on the subject. It looks like they’re still going forward for now:
As we continue our countdown to the 2020 Democratic National Convention scheduled for July 13-16 in Milwaukee, WI, we’re faced with the unprecedented challenge as a country of responding to #COVID19. In this climate of uncertainty, we wanted to share an update on planning: pic.twitter.com/OMoS5hThIA
— 2020 Democratic National Convention (@DemConvention) March 14, 2020
That could easily change and it will have huge implications if it does.
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Comments
Here’s that 03/17/20 appearance of Joe, frozen at his podium until his CEO/CFO* Jill comes to the rescue. It takes him a second before he recognizes her.
*of the LetsMilkJoeForAllItsWorth, Inc. of which “Doctor” Jill is the majority shareholder,
at 03:25,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=tIwH4kF5OvY&feature=emb_logo
Thanks for that link.
Politico is a Democrat dominated org.
They’re just trying to help the Democrats!
Nuff’ Said!
If they cancel it, Milwaukee won’t feel the Bern.
And AntiFa can still show up with a different style of mask. Do they do N95 in black?
I would like to see an Antifa event, one where a bunch of them leave in body bags.
Who’s got the “real” count on official Antifa members?
In addition to “not feeling the Bern” of protests, not having a convention gives Democratic leadership an even greater chance to “stack the deck” and completely control the process.
On PredictIt, a “Yes” to whether the Democrat convention is held in Milwaukee on July 16 costs about $0.33.
Yes!
I had to laugh out loud at David Siders of Politico’s insertion “you cannot control the agenda,” said Les Francis, a Democratic strategist….”
That’s all the psychopathic Democrat Party does – it why they’ve been openly calling for a dictatorship for more than decade now.
(Comment somehow got stuck in the wrong place before.)
The big tell is they are canceling primaries ,so neither Bernie nor Slo Joe get a majority.Then the superdelegates pick either Cuomo or Hildabeast.
I believe old Joe is about to get a Bernieside view of the undercarriage of the DNC bus.
And Biden probably crossing his fingers, hoping he does not have to go out, speak in public.
I don’t think conventions/no conventions will have any effect on 2020 outcome; the game changer and the thing that worries me is if Trump and /or Pence get COVID19 and have bad outcomes. With all of the meetings and public exposure they have, this possibility isn’t a “tin foil hat” concern.
I see no difference in outcome, Trump wins either way.
A cancelled convention doesn’t mean they can’t find a way vote for a candidate.
With each individual attendee.viewer having the opportunity to vote as many times as are necessary too.
Does not mean they can’t find a way to rig and steal for a candidate…..
The Democrat convention is not viable, a risk even, and should be cancelled. Either that or choose a virtual presence to reduce the excess “burdens”. Lead the way, Democrats, or lose your religion.
I’ve got an idea for Dem.
They should have it in Wuhan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gov Blackfadce think his going to torpedo the GOP primary in his state by locking it down till June 10
Please siir, show some respect yuaal
It is Honorable Governor Blackface.
honestly this administration should do all it can to make sure they are able to hold conventions even if done remotely.
if not they will be blamed for purposely cancelling the dem voters rights (or wording to that effect) and media will play it up to a crescendo we’ve never even dreamed possible.
and voters who vote just to say they did w/o looking at any issues/reports/etc will blindly believe them and vote against trump. people who seldom vote will register and vote against trump just cause they would believe the lies.
Except, of course, the government has no control over what private organizations do. And the problem is- if Trump tries to help, the Democrats will immediately blame all problems on him. And the MSM will join in and help.
Absolutely, further, the President has no business interfering in the dnc candidate selection process.
Looking at the way Biden’s face is weirdly lit in so many of the images online, like the one above, am I the only one who is reminded of Max Headroom?
Could his notorious mental lapses be the result of a glitch in the computer simulation? (IIRC, Max used to suffer from some glitches too.)
When I see recent photos of Biden, I’m reminded of corpses of seen in caskets at wakes.
D’s have more to worry about than his mental lapses. This is a man rapidly declining in health. He’s literally dying of old age.
His appearance has changed markedly since just six months ago.
It’s six months until the election. Will he have passed by then?
No prob, the convention doesn’t need people, they can do everything they need to do with big cardboard cutouts.
The D’rats real virus problem isn’t crowds, it’s getting people to forget that the Party serves the Chinese (and, by implication, their nasty disease). And whenever enthusiasm flags, those inscrutable Orientals can just hire some politician’s incompetent children at exhorbitant salaries, and everything should fall in line.
Lizzie already has her cardboard cutout ready to go.
She has a plan for everything, y’know.
Hear Hear!
RE: “The D’rats real virus problem isn’t crowds, it’s getting people to forget that the Party serves the Chinese…”
It’s not as if there are any viable Democrat candidates. Would anyone notice if they… it were cancelled?
“That Thursday night speech by our nominee could be seen by 50 to 60 million Americans, most of them who haven’t paid a minute of attention to the primary. That’s the conversation that takes us to winning.” — Mulholland
Nice public cheer leading, but he is probably thinking just the opposite. those millions of viewers seeing, in person, a performance by Biden consistent with those of recent weeks would make the re-election of DJT a shoo-in.
Or if Biden fails to make it to the finish line, and they bring in someone from the farm team, pushing Bernie aside, the trashing of Milwaukee will be spectacular. Cancelling the convention will short circuit a lot of that.
Obviously that Politico DEM parrot is just trying to
soften the DEMS up for No Convention, and no Biden speech
so the DEMS can hide Biden’s clear insanity.
Oh for goodness sakes we’re taking about one of the two political parties. They will do whatever and come up with the result they want. Plus it’s the Democrats they’ll have a fix in. It’ll either be smooth or stupidly bad and obvious but it will be a fix.
HEAR HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democrats are worried about what if Trump postpones the election. The should be far more worried if he doesn’t.
The convention is in Milwaukee to put Wisconsin back in the Blue Column. Plus the convention would showcase their moron Governor Tony Evers, who is about as sharp as Clueless Joe.
The city of Milwaukee will take a massive economic hit. Millions have already been spent remodeling hotels, lining food service for convention events, scheduling 100’s of buses for Transportation, etc. Milwaukee will be bankrupt if the Dems cancel.
Isn’t Milwaukee DEM run?
Sure that Milwaukee is already many times broke then……..
Maybe Bloomberg can help them out. Certainly not a concern of the American tax payer as a whole.
The main thing lost if the Dem convention is cancelled, is the Bernie Bro’s and Antifa’s opportunity to trash Milwaukee. Otherwise, not much lost.
That’s their problem. DO NOT EXTEND THE ELECTION; THAT WILL BE A RECIPE FOR FASCISM and one day will be invoked by an obama/clinton/pelosi/biden/kerry/omar-type who America might be unfortunate enough to find itself having as a chief executive.
And, open the goddam economy! If we can go to Walmart, supermarkets, Home Depot etc. we can go anywhere. Just force people to wear masks as a condition.
Just force people to wear masks as a condition.
And condoms… which would reduce the planned excess deaths by nearly one million annually in America alone.
re: condoms
That and moderation of social liberal club, would have saved around 1/2 a million trans/homo males from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which progressed in a politically congruent (“=”) environment that brayed the stigma and lives away for political convenience. There are precedents.
That would be *such* a shame. Too bad, so sad.
Yes!
I had to laugh out loud at David Siders of Politico’s insertion “you cannot control the agenda,” said Les Francis, a Democratic strategist….”
That’s all the psychopathic Democrat Party does – it why they’ve been openly calling for a dictatorship for more than decade now.
They’ll lose and claim Trump stole the election.
They’ll lose and claim Trump stole the election.
The Democrats will lose and claim Trump stole the election.
Post of the Year!
Funny, when mentioning that the video-conferencing wasn’t Biden’s strong suit, I was stuck trying to come up with something that wasn’t a negative that WAS his strong suit.
The man is pervy, creepy, not very bright on his best days – which are long past. Reality is Biden is a politician who benefited from stupid voters who never bothered looking at the man himself, only the party, and that served this creepy, handsy, strange man well for a long time.
He lies. Steals other people’s work and pretends it’s his own. Was not a great student in a meh level law school. Never really worked as a lawyer because he is like Bernie, lazy.
And those are his best qualities.
At least he wouldn’t have that strange wooden wacky face during the festivities of a coronation at a convention like Hillary did. So, there is one more plus for the dementia man.
I work with people who schedule conferences currently. They do it for a living. All the conferences are being rescheduled. NOBODY is scheduling a conference for April, May, June, July, August, or September. The earliest ones I know of are being scheduled for October and November and people are being tentative about them. The July DNC conference is not happening. A lot of attendees are older people. Nobody will want to put their life on the line to listen to or participate in an event celebrating Joe Biden. Or anyone else for that matter. Not even the Bernie Bots. They may have to do the Democratic convention virtually to at least get someone nominated to start pushing. Given Biden’s early dementia, that may work for them.
The August 24-27 date of the Republican Convention is also probably too early. It will likely be pushed to later. That is not a big deal in this situation.
We just need a viable vaccine before the general election. And then make sure Repubs get it first and, then, whoops, we’ve run out, dang it!
Given the fact that Biden is their likely nominee, having 50-60 million people watch him fail miserably at reading a teleprompter at their convention would not only sink his campaign before it started but destroy the hope of dozens, probably hundreds, of other D’s down-ticket across the nation.
If D’s want any chance of Biden not costing them the House, or any chance of retaking the Senate, they should keep him as far from the public eye as possible. No debates, no live appearances, no TV interviews. Just scripted, edited, pre-recorded statements from his home.
“But Ms. Hillary, the whole plan was to replace Joe at a brokered convention. Now what do we do?”
The DNC has no intention of running Joe Biden, never did.
Brokered convention, unfortunate incapacitation, or just a plain old coup. The real democrat candidate is waiting to enter the stage.