The finalist cities are in: Tampa, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Houston.

With all due respect to all of these places, my preferences are in order: Phoenix, Tampa, Houston, and Salt Lake City.

I suppose I could fake it and say my preferences stem from a close study of the political demographic issues. But it’s simpler than that. While SLC would have the best late-summer climate, but it’s hard to get a good drink there. Phoenix is hotter than H.E. double hockey sticks, but they’ve mastered air conditioning like no other place I’ve been. And I’ve really grown to like Arizona over the years. Houston is full of nice folks, but it is as hot as Phoenix with twice the humidity. I don’t have strong feelings about Tampa, but Florida just knows how to run good conventions and it’s easy to get to.

How’s that for scientific and serious?