2.86 miles.

According to Mapquest.com, that’s the distance from my front door to the barricades outside the entrance to the Republican National Convention, which opens on Monday at the Xcel Energy Center here in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

On Labor Day no less.

Four years ago, when we as a nation supposedly democratically decided that four more years of Bush2 was the way to go, James Bowman, a resident scholar at the right wing Ethics and Public Policy Center, was so captivated by a line in Georgia Sen. Zell Miller’s speech at the 2004 convention that he decided to pen a poem a day from the RNC at MSG (or maybe his room at the Four Points Sheraton). Here’s a stanza to whet your whistle:

Sing, oh muse, your most heroic ditty.
Republicans convene in New York City.
Where we shall see kick-off their fall campaign.
Giuliani, Schwarzenegger, and McCain…

The legions (no doubt) of Harriet readers interested in exploring Bowman’s “heroic ditties” and leaden rhymes further can head straight to National Public Radio, where soundfiles of Bowman reading his poems are archived.

Thus far, I have received no calls from NPR to poem from St. Paul.