The Democratic Hole in the Doughnut

As reporters headed into the Pepsi Center on July 8 for the second – and final – media walk-through, a volunteer was handing out doughnuts. Fried doughnuts.

You better believe that members of the Democratic National Convention Committee, which organized the walk-through, are fit to be fried over the ribbing they’ve taken in the national press lately, what with both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times mocking the “Lean ‘N Green” guidelines – including a ban on fried foods -- created not by the DNCC, but by the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee for caterers and restaurants looking for convention business.

But it was the media that had the heartburn last month, after the DNCC pushed back the date for the second walk-through (the first was back in November) with just a week’s notice, snarling travel arrangements. And as it turned out, the timing of this fall-back briefing wasn’t much better, since the DNCC is scrambling to accommodate the Obama campaign’s request that the final evening of the convention, including Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, be moved to Invesco Field at Mile High. That switch was just announced Monday, and a day later, the convention officials who’ve been working on Pepsi Center arrangements for more than a year didn’t have a lot of solid Invesco information.

But they did have doughnuts. And in fact, deputy CEO for public affairs Jenni Engebretsen assured hard-hearted (and hardened arteried) reporters that the convention would have "all the fried food you can stomach."

And come to think of it, Invesco looks a little like a doughnut. Fried.-- Patricia Calhoun