Three years is like Windex. Everything's crystal clear through the panes of time.

So now I see.

Birmingham's failed and futile bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention wasn't just a daring longshot or a wistful pipe dream. The city never had so much as a puncher's chance. It had no chance at all.

The whole thing was just another way to get people paid.

Not that we really needed three years to figure that out. It should have been clear from the start, from the time the mayor's staff and the Birmingham City Council met behind closed doors - because public discussion could hurt Birmingham's chances, they said - to hammer out the details.

About who would get paid.

They had it all figured out.

Partnering for Progress, a company run John Powe - the current chief deputy Jefferson County tax assessor and business associate of admitted bribee Oliver Robinson - would get $100,000 to help put together the bid package for the DNC.

The Podesta Group - a lobbying firm founded by Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman and email hackee John Podesta - got $150,000. The law firm of Covington & Burling - former Attorney General Eric Holder's law firm - got another $25,000.

For that $275,000 Birmingham, though it wasn't even on the DNC's list of cities really considered for the convention, was given the courtesy of a visit by party officials, and the privilege of spending even more taxpayer cash on preparations, travel and parties.

Ah, Democracy.

The thing is it never required any hindsight. None. It was a no from the go, a sham in the 'Ham. All anybody had to do was look at the most basic requirements of the DNC and understand the most basic concepts of physics.

You can't put a donkey in a dog house.

The DNC made it clear from the start that It needed a convention hall or domed stadium with at least 650,000 square feet of usable space. Birmingham had 350,000 on its best day.

The DNC was clear the winning city needed 17,000 to 18,000 hotel rooms and 1,000 suites. The Birmingham Convention and Visitor's Bureau's Meeting Planners Guide lists 15,000 rooms from downtown to Inverness. And while it's unclear how many suites there are in the metro area, we know how many there are at the two proposed host hotels - the Sheraton Birmingham and the Westin:

A total of 22.

It might be possible to put Charles Barkley in a Speedo, but nobody wants that.

The DNC required media workspace of 200,000 to 250,000 square feet, and 250 air-conditioned buses to move people around.

The bid package - the one taxpayers paid Powe's company $100,000 to help put together - offers almost no explanation for how Birmingham would deal with the shortcomings. Truth is the whole package is a heap of jumbled information about the city that no one anywhere, ever, would take seriously. If it were a school research paper I'd give it a D-. But that's why I could never be a teacher. I'm a softie.

Still, the package says it would disclose the location of the media space after it got the bid. It would rely on "public-private partnerships" to meet the bus commitment. It would be able to move DNC staff and volunteers on the public transit system, MAX.

Just so we understand the situation here, Birmingham's bus system operates with 84 fixed route buses, 33 paratransit vehicles and 7 vans.

If anybody really wanted Birmingham to get that bid, they wanted to see Birmingham fail.

I don't believe they did. So it must be that they simply wanted people paid.

Now it's pretty clear.

It used to be taxpayer money, and now it's not.