EDIT: DNC must be at FleetCenter

While Gov. Mitt Romney is attempting to deal with the fact that it the Democrats are planning to hold their biggest party of the year in Boston this summer, his obstructionism and ridiculousness about the event reached a new level Tuesday. Romney proposed that the DNC – just four months away after more than a year of planning – be moved from the FleetCenter to Boston’s new convention center near the waterfront for “security” reasons. Yet again Romney is refusing to set aside his political beliefs for the good of the city and state to make frivolous arguments in an attempt to create unneeded hoops for the DNC to jump through.

Romney has said he will go along with whatever the DNC decides to do. But if the governor does in fact support the committee’s decision to hold the convention at FleetCenter, which, according to The Boston Globe, DNC Executive Director Rod O’Connor has said will not change, he should not have even brought up the issue. Romney would have been furious had the governor of Utah suggested that the 2002 Winter Olympics relocate from the central and long-planned location of Salt Lake City to a secluded, albeit safer, location like Ophir, Utah (population: 22). Calling for the DNC to move from the FleetCenter to the secluded new convention center is just as impractical and clearly a political ploy.

The idea of holding the convention at the FleetCenter played a substantial role in Boston’s bid to host the DNC. The building is set up extremely well to host such a large event and is already equipped to handle a large number of spectators and members of the media. While Romney claims that security will be an issue at the FleetCenter due to its location near several modes of public transportation, security officials will be much better equipped to deal with security issues at the FleetCenter because they have been planning to hold the event there from the beginning, and presumably thinking about such issues since the early planning stages. Changing the location of the convention would only create new and additional security problems and destroy months of planning.

It would be impossible to relocate the convention less than five months before it is scheduled to take place. Construction on the new convention center has not even been finished and the first event is not scheduled to take place until June – one month before the DNC.

Romney’s arrogant statements and cheap shots at both the convention itself and Mayor Thomas Menino are deplorable. Menino spearheaded the quest to bring the convention to Boston, and his success will not only benefit the city but the state as well. Romney should be grateful to Menino for bringing in a tremendous amount of additional revenue for the state instead of making petty statements in attempts to bring him down. Romney needs to back down and work together with Boston to create the most amicable environment for the convention possible. His current confrontational attitude will only create more problems. As we have said before, Romney must step away from his political beliefs and work with the city to confront all problems immediately instead of creating even more by spouting off and whining because the Democrats are coming to town.