Speaker John Boehner Says Era Of Political Conventions May Be Ending

via Meredith Shiner, Roll Call

Speaker John Boehner (Ohio), the Republican National Convention’s permanent chairman, said today he doesn’t believe the current four-day convention framework makes sense in a modern media environment.

The length of the once-every-four-years party fete has come into question as a natural disaster threatens to cut yet another convention down, with today’s formal festivities being canceled and other events later in the week in doubt with Tropical Storm Isaac barreling through the Gulf Coast region. Republicans cut short their 2008 affair in Minneapolis because of Hurricane Gustav.

“These are very expensive propositions to put on. I think that given as much news people get today and the way they get their news, I’m not sure that having a four-day convention for the future makes a lot of sense,” Boehner told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor lunch.

Boehner said the Republican and Democratic national committees “will assess whether this type of convention is worth the tremendous resources put into it.”

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