[Happygal]

If there is a security threat - well, I guess, I can understand the searches. I'm not sure I'd personally like to be searched willy-nilly, but if it's in the genuine interests of safety and security, well, I'd succumb to it. Same way as I allow myself to be searched at airports, or going into concerts...etc.

[wagglebee]

If some terrorist attack happened at the DNC, the 'Rats would be all over the place saying that Bush knew about it and didn't do anything to prevent it.

[Alberta's Child]

What's usually overlooked in cases like this is one very basic, irrefutable fact: The Fourth Amendment is not open for negotiation.

This is not like an airport, in which people are screened for security purposes when they enter the terminal. The random inspection of handbags doesn't just apply to convention attendees in Boston -- it's being done to anyone who takes an MBTA train to the vicinity of the convention site.

If there is a legitimate reason to believe that there are major security concerns at a large gathering like this, the solution is not a large-scale abrogation of the Fourth Amendment . . . instead, they should just cancel the event, or hold it someplace where the general public will not be bothered.