This date has pretty much been circled on the calendar for the entire year, as I get ready to basically put life on hold and go into the 2008 Political Party Convention Mind Meld Mode.

First, it's off to Denver for the Democrats. 

This will be my sixth Democratic Convention, which seems sort of hard to believe as I type this sentence.

1988 in Atlanta, 1992 in New York, 1996 in Chicago, 2000 in Los Angeles, 2004 in Boston and now 2008 in Denver.

This is my 10th convention to cover overall.  I've been to four GOP conventions, 1992 in Houston, 1996 in San Diego, 2000 in Philadelphia and 2004 in New York.  Add on 2008 in St. Paul, and that will give me eleven major party political conventions.

Unlike four years ago, when I walked from my hotels in both Boston and New York to the convention stadium, this time I'm a good 15-20 miles from the two facilities.

As of now, the Democrats still haven't approved my request for a parking space, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do Monday morning when I need to be there soon after 3:30 am Mountain Time to start my day.

Supposedly, the parking spaces for the media at the Democratic Convention are free, while the Republicans are charging us $160 for a parking pass.

No credit cards or cash are accepted for that 160 smackers if you can believe it.  Only checks.  I guess the GOP didn't want to lose 2% to the credit card companies. 

Who writes checks anymore??

As for all the gear that I have to lug on the plane today, it sure is a lot less than what I jammed in the rental car up to Boston four years ago, or what I shipped to Los Angeles in 2000.

The computer has taken over, as I now can edit everything on my laptop and email my stories out to the seven radio stations that I cover Washington news for.

But this year is different than all the others.

This time, the conventions are back to back.  A week from today, I will stuff all my dirty clothes in one suitcase and do it all again, flying from Denver to St. Paul.  And again a week after that back to DC.

Usually one party has its convention and we wait at least a week, before the next one.  When I first started going, there were three to four weeks between conventions.  The first one was usually in July, the second in August. 

Now we will have one that starts on Labor Day (the GOP.)

My big question is this:  Does that back-to-back situation help or hurt one of the parties?

I sure never thought I would be at a political convention on the opening night of the NFL season.