Well, one thing the convention did do was totally f*** up rush hour traffic in Charlotte today. BO just had to be coming in and driving to wherever he was going to stay, at the right time to make the afternoon commute a total PITA for all the locals.
I was listening to WBT AM radio at 3:30 PM, and according to their traffic report, they had various sections of I-77 North and South and I-485 completely blocked off, police stationed on bridges, and most of the DOT traffic cameras turned off, so they could try to keep everyone guessing what his actual route would be.
From what the rest of the traffic report described, it had basically turned Charlotte into one huge traffic jam. Now THERE'S a way to win the hearts and votes of the local populace.
Another goodie is that they've cancelled plans to hold BO's acceptance speech in Ericsson (ie, Panthers) Stadium tomorrow night. Official line is the possibility of inclement weather - but the radio hosts were calling BS on that - saying that the word they've gotten from local Dem party officials is that they couldn't find enough people to fill the 50,000 capacity stadium, and the big boys were worried that a lot of empty seats would look bad on TV - so they decided to move the speech inside a closed venue.
Problem is, there's a lot of people that stood in line for hours over the past couple of weeks to get passes to attend the speech in the stadium - and the closed venue they're moving to is too small to accomodate anywhere near the number of passes they've already given out - so there's likely to be a bunch of people pissed about that as well.
Not a good showing in a state where you're already behind in the polls.
I've watched all the wheeling and dealing going on locally over the past few months since Charlotte got the nod for the convention. I had the read on this quite a while back that it was going to turn into a gigantic cluster, at least from the viewpoint of the people that live in the area - and doesn't look like I was far wrong. There's been more a$$ kissing, deal making, and money swapping hands than a Rear Admiral Selection Board.
Before this, Charlotte was claiming poverty - no money to replace burned-out streetlamps along I-77, closed down several schools due to lack of funds - but suddenly found millions to spend on new gear and new police officers for the convention crowd, and the funds to cover letting the DNC use Ericsson Stadium free and gratis for BO's speech.
Just get it over with and get them the hell out of town so we can get things back to normal around here.