Party conventions fell flat for voters
Party time — Between the massive spending sprees and low ratings, conventions seem to do a lot of harm and not much good. DonkeyHotey
After two weeks of fierce party pride and calls to action, the last of the confetti from the 2012 presidential nominating conventions was swept into the trash. Like the wilted confetti, the parties’ bid to captivate the nation quickly faded. In light of the massive cost of staging the presidential conventions and the dwindling audiences, the two weeks of speeches and cheering appear wasteful.
Parties begin convention planning over a year in advance. Long before delegates arrive, bills for transportation, catering, the arena, advertising and yes, confetti, accumulate. These bills are largely paid with tax dollars from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.
According to the Federal Election Committee, Democrats and Republicans split $36.5 million from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to convene their parties this year. In addition, Congress generously allocated another $50 million to each party for security measures. Thus, the aggregate cost to taxpayers was over $136 million for the 2012 presidential conventions. Both parties may laud tax cuts, but no complaints were heard over the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the 2012 conventions.
Even after donations from corporations, contributions from unions and the allotted funds from Congress and the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, parties left debt behind. Bloomberg announced that the Democrats closed their convention $5 million over their budget. Speeches about fiscal responsibility smack of blatant contradiction when a party cannot even control spending for a three-day event.
Despite the gigantic convention budgets, audiences have dwindled. The Nielsen Co., the premiere audience ratings organization, reported that 8 million fewer people watched Mitt Romney accept the Republican presidential nomination than watched John McCain accept the honor in 2008. The Democratic National Convention dropped to only 3 million in viewership, according to the Nielsen Co. American taxes light the stage and hire the cameramen, but Americans are not intrigued enough to watch.
With compounding budget problems and bored viewers, convention ratings have also fallen. TLC’s new reality show “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” received higher ratings than the second night of the Republican National Convention, according to the Nielson Co. The same evening that Condoleezza Rice and Paul Ryan addressed the nation, cable audiences were more focused on a pageant child’s lifestyle.
While the “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” ratings may reveal an American intellect problem more than a problem with our political conventions, parties only make the situation worse when Clint Eastwood interviews a chair or when President Obama’s address is lost in speeches from Eva Longoria and Scarlett Johansson.
The viewers who did tune in were not incredibly swayed by either party’s platform. Gallup data shows pre-convention voter preferences were 47 percent Obama and 46 percent Romney. However, post-convention data placed Obama at 50 percent and Romney 44 percent. Gallup data revealed that even after their inspirational addresses, Obama received a historically low post-convention jump, while Romney gained no ground at all.
For all of the commanding speeches, teary-eyed crowds and predictions for America’s future, the presidential conventions did not captivate the nation. We are left with a close presidential race and more debt, wondering why the parties convened at all.