The DNC Could Have Been In New York

A comment posted on the Brothers Judd blog sent me Googling for this item from November of 2002:

The Democratic Party has chosen Boston over New York City for the site of the party’s 2004 presidential nominating convention.

“The choice for the Democrats in 2004 is the city of Boston, the shining city on the hill,” said Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe after the Democratic National Committee’s site selection committee voted unanimously for Boston after also visiting New York, Detroit and Miami earlier this year.

It will be Boston’s first national political convention. The Massachusetts city won because Democrats didn’t want to share the same venue with Republicans, who are considering New York.

“New York was the only city that wouldn’t sign an exclusivity agreement,” McAuliffe said.

“That has been a big stumbling block,” said New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton.

So even before the liberation of Iraq, when there were still numerous remnants of the bipartisan feeling of the period after 9/11, rather than a level playing field, the Democrats gave up having Ground Zero in the background, because it would also be there for the Republicans’ convention?

What on earth were they thinking?