Two things are certain right now.

1. Rep. Bob Ney is going to jail
2. The Presidential contest is well underway for 2008

With that in mind, cities around the country are putting together their bids to host the 2008 Democratic Convention and among the more serious bidders will be Denver, Colorado.

In fact, Denver just hired well-known Democratic convention planner and consultant Debbie Willhite to lead the effort on behalf of the city.

From the Rocky Mountain News:

Debbie Willhite, a key Democratic Party political strategist and national convention organizer for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, has been named executive director of the Denver 2008 Host Committee, showing the city’s determination to win the 2008 convention.

She said a Denver convention would help the Democratic Party advance its successful strategy of attracting independent voters in the Mountain West to win back the White House.

“I think the No. 1 purpose of the convention is to be a launching pad for the presidential nominee,” Willhite said. “Denver serves that purpose in a number of ways. The most important way is that it stretches the electoral map and shows that the Democrats are reaching out to the Rocky Mountain West.”

She said that gives Denver an edge over the other two competitors for the Democratic convention - New York and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

I think Denver makes a lot of sense for Democrats in 2008. It’s a region of the country that we’ve made some inroads in, but we still have lots of work to do.

What do you think?…post a comment below.

The New York Times reports this morning:

The 2008 Republican national convention will begin just three days after Democrats finish naming their presidential nominee, Republican officials said on Thursday, producing an unusually concentrated burst of political pageantry and the shortest time between conventions in 50 years.

The Republican convention will start on Sept. 1 and end on Sept. 4, party officials said.

The Democrats had announced earlier that their convention would start on Aug. 25 and end on Aug. 29. The Democrats were constrained from having their nominating convention earlier in August because they would have competed with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Neither party has decided on a location yet, but for my money, I’d start booking hotels here.