Expect a crush in Charlotte tonight

by: Matt

Thu Sep 06, 2012 at 08:31:08 AM EDT

Jaime Dupree reads the Fire Marshall tea leaves:

The decision by Democratic Party officials to move President Obama's acceptance speech "inside" on Thursday night started the dominoes falling in Charlotte for the news media and delegates, ensuring that we may have our biggest lockout of party bigwigs since the 1988 convention in Atlanta.

That year, the Democrats held their convention at the old Omni - which filled up so fast that lawmakers were left outside when the authorities closed the doors - as they did to the Time Warner Cable arena on Wednesday evening.

Colleagues of mine were stuck outside around 8:15 pm - and it didn't matter if you were a Congressman or not - the fire marshal wasn't letting anyone else in until more people came out of the building.

I shudder to think of what the lines will look like on Thursday - some poor delegates will be left outside in the crush of people trying to get in.

Our advice: Simple. Get there early.