That said, in my view, a convention would also be the avenue to secession. Set the ratification requirements accordingly, and if you don't like what you get, don't ratify. Then you're out of the union.
I certainly don't want to contradict myself, but I will say this:
I like self government. I do trust the people.
But between public education and the Left-dominated media, I'm not sure the people would get a fair opportunity to understand their own self-interest. Saying so does not invalidate the position that "self government is good".
I believe that a Constitutional Convention would be dominated by professional politicians (Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, etc) and that private citiziens (Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, Huck, ClearCase_Guy, etc.) would be squeezed out.
The resulting document would be trumpeted by Chris Matthews and Jay Leno as the best thing ever, and would probably be ratified by NY, CA, MI and MA pretty quickly. With that kind of momentum, I bet a lot of other states would quickly follow.
The risks are too great. Our current Constitution isn't perfect but it lays out a framework of limited government, and it is still a fine idea. I look at the world around me and I see that the problem is with the men in power and the voters who put them there. The content of our current Constitution is NOT central to our current problems, IMO.