Why Cleveland ?

     If there is one area in which the Republican National Committee excels, it is its ability to make bad decisions based on faulty political analysis. The decision to hold their 2016 convention in Cleveland, Ohio, I am sad to say, is no exception to this ever increasing common behavior of the GOP leadership. There is a reason that Cleveland has not been chosen to host a national political convention since the 1930s.
     I understand that the GOP leadership felt they had Texas all sown up vote-wise for the 2016 presidential election, so Dallas would not have gained them any ground politically. Furthermore, they felt having the convention in Cleveland would allow them to ingratiate their party to the voters in the all important swing state of Ohio. Well I really question how many voters will be switched to the Republican cause simply by having their convention in the Democrat cesspool of Cleveland. Additionally, trying to impress new voters by having your convention in Cleveland, Ohio is analogous to a young man trying to impress his date by taking her to a vomitorium.
     Before all those rabid Clevelanders start taking up a collection to pay for my tar and feathers, consider the following. Cleveland use to be a thriving metropolis of over a million people, home to 13 Fortune Five Hundred companies, and had healthy neighborhoods that were 85% owner-occupied. After sixty years of mostly Democrat control, the city's population has shrank to under 400,000, all 13 Fortune Five Hundred companies have fled for greener pastures, and the city is 80% rental.
     The recent shellacking of the Cleveland police Department for last year's shooting of a couple of crack heads who were evading them and then tried to run over officers with their car, should be a signal to any potential visitor to the city that leadership cares more about protecting criminals than law-abiding citizens. I just hope none of the convention attendees venture very far from the convention location or their hotel.
     As for having your party's convention in a city that is in a swing state in order to swing that state in your direction come election time, I am not sure if there is any hard evidence that that actually produces results. Additionally, Ohio has not voted for a Republican since George W. Bush in 2004. Twelve years (by the time of the 2016 election) is a long time to still be called a "swing state." And if the GOP wanted to have their convention in Ohio to continue their delusion of picking up votes, they could have chosen one of many other cities in the state that would have been more suitable. Like Mount Vernon, named after our first president's estate. At least there conventioneers would not have to dodge gunfire and step over homeless people on their way to convention events.