The Welcome (Wrestling) Mat

There was a time in American life when a city bloomed with pride to host a national political convention. The 1968 debacle in Chicago changed all that. San Diego never wanted the Republicans this year in the first place. At the news last week that the G.O.P., faced with myriad logistical problems and the taint of the ITT brouhaha, was joining the Democrats in Miami Beach this summer, San Diego's mayor, police chief and a number of other city notables happily gathered "to toast the convention out of town."

Miami Beach--an island that can easily be closed off against mischief --thus becomes the first city since Chicago in 1952 to play host to both party conventions. The city is not exactly ecstatic over the honor. Only some vestige of civic duty (and whiff of profit) carried the motion in the city council by a scant 4-3 vote to invite the Republicans. The loyal opposition included the Chamber of Commerce and the Community Relations Board, who fear a seven-week encampment of antiwar protesters spanning the time from the Democratic opening on July 10 to the scheduled Republican closing on Aug. 24.

Easily the most splenetic protest was voiced by Miami's Police Benevolent Association. In an extraordinary telegram, the association warned the Miami Beach Tourist Development Authority (which had promoted the Republican invitation): "You are now put on notice that civil action suits will be filed against your organization and individual members of the executive board on behalf of each and every Miami police officer and Miami citizen that is killed, injured or indicted as a result of the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.