Cleveland and the GOP: Both losers

This week it was announced that not only did the Republican Party incredibly choose the city of Cleveland, Ohio, for its 2016 National Convention, but that LeBron James, the basketball star who had wisely decided to abandon the "mistake on the lake" years earlier for the Miami Heat, had decided to return to the Cavaliers basketball team. As someone who had the displeasure to live in Cleveland for some time after my 2004 candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Florida, I was shocked by both events, as this "fair city" has for decades represented the epitome of a loser image – it's not suitable for the hopes of either Republicans or LeBron.

First, why the Republicans would choose a city whose precincts voted well over 90 percent for Barack Hussein Obama in the last two presidential elections, and which is perhaps the most leftist major city in the United States, is absurd. The chance of Republicans picking up votes in Cleveland is null and void. If indeed winning the key electoral state of Ohio was the objective, then the cities of Cincinnati or Columbus would have been a better alternative.

Second, Cleveland is woefully short of top-notch hotels and restaurants and is dangerous. In this regard, downtown Cleveland, where the convention will be held, has at most three decent eateries and no first-rate hotels in safe areas to speak of. Having lived in the Warehouse District, which is the most "fashionable area" of downtown, the number of street people and beggars approximates the number of white or blue collar workers who frequent and live in the area. The district is not only dangerous, it is depressed beyond imagination, so much so that when I considered buying a condominium there, since it was close to the law firm where I had become a partner, the advantage was only that real estate taxes would be abated for 10 years as an incentive. Accordingly, the facilities and venue of Cleveland are not suitable for a national political convention and portray a poor image for a party already in difficulty if not permanent decline.

Third, from my experience, the people of Cleveland have an equally poor image of themselves. Not only is it the third-fattest city in the United States, the mood of the populace is depressing. I remember once being on a local political television talk show on Labor Day when my co-participants fought over and downplayed new statistics showing that Cleveland, for the moment, was on the upswing. The people of Cleveland, for whatever reason, relish their role as perceived losers as part of what may be a victim complex.

Fourth, during July and August of each year, which is the summer period when the Republican convention will be held, lake flies descend on the "mistake on the lake." Gnat-like disgusting creatures swarm the area. I know, having lived just a few blocks from the lake and having had an apartment there that became incrusted with these foul, unhealthy insects.

Fifth, as a lawyer, I have to also attest to the now proven fact that Cleveland has one of the most corrupt legal systems in the country, stocked with incestuously compromised lawyers and judges who scratch each other's backs. For a political party that is attacking Obama and his comrades over so-called phony scandals, this is not the right image. The family law courts, for instance, are routinely trashed by the local newspaper, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, for their sleaze.

I could go on and on about the idiocy of the Republican Party choosing Cleveland as the site for its hoped for re-emergence as a party that can elect a president following the tyrannical rule of Barack Hussein Obama, but perhaps this satirical travel video says it all:

Yes, I do have one good friend in Cleveland and thus not all is bad or pathetic. But in all honesty, the city is the poster boy for losers.

And, this is why I also offer my condolences to LeBron James, the once Cleveland Cavalier who at one time took a $40 million dollar per year salary cut to leave and join the Miami Heat, where he then won two national NBA championships. While LeBron can likely kiss off any more NBA championship rings, at least he in good faith and perhaps for sentimental reasons returned home to his native Ohio.

But for a political party that has lost the last two presidential elections to an incompetent and dishonest "Mullah in Chief," the future under any scenario does not bode well given its choice for the national convention, unless its new constituency is liberal fat people who have given up on life and enjoy seeing themselves as victims. Perhaps it is appropriate, as the GOP has metaphorically become fat, having fed at the trough of a dis-served American people that have few electoral choices to try to restore our beloved nation to the greatness of our Founding Fathers.

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