Dems Pick Philly for 2016 Convo February 12, 2015

Politico:
Philadelphia has been chosen as the host city of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, party officials announced Thursday.

The decision is a huge disappointment for New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio had made a major effort to land the convention for Brooklyn. The city had put together a rich financial package to lure the Democratic National Committee.

The Democrats’ other finalist city was Columbus, Ohio.

The convention will be held in the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers. The same building, then called the First Union Center, hosted the GOP convention in 2000.

A Democratic official familiar with the decision said the choice was “a close call among the three,” and came down almost entirely to logistics. A factor that hurt both Brooklyn and Columbus was the huge security perimeter of a modern convention, which requires surrounding blocks to be fenced off well ahead of the convention.

Charlotte Observer Editorial, Furious at Convo for Dumping Stadium Speech September 5, 2012

They don’t mince words. Wednesday’s editorial:

Not that the whole “most open and accessible convention in history” had a leg to stand on anyway, but now that claim is officially dead. The Democrats just yanked credentials from some 50,000-plus potential voters who had planned to cheer on President Obama’s acceptance speech in person Thursday night.

The DNC Committee’s announcement this morning that Obama’s speech was being moved from Bank of America Stadium to Time Warner Cable Arena is what Obama’s young supporters would call a buzzkill. Thousands had volunteered for Obama’s campaign for hours, and thousands more stood in line for many hours, to secure a ticket to the stadium. Thanks for the effort, guys, but … never mind.

The DNCC cited the potential for severe weather. Weather.com predicts the skies will be partly cloudy at 10 p.m. Thursday, with a 20 percent chance of rain. It’s never higher than 30 percent from 4 p.m. on.

What did organizers think the chance of rain would be on a September evening in Charlotte when they decided to put the Obama event at the stadium in the first place? Zero?

It seems to be part of a pattern by the DNCC: Make big plans, then scale them back. First it was the Monday event at the Speedway being reeled in. Now this.

Republicans are speculating that organizers moved the event because they couldn’t fill the stadium and didn’t want the embarrassment of Obama talking to empty seats. Highly unlikely. Democratic officials say they gave out 65,000 credentials and had 19,000 more on a waiting list. They say they would have been turning people away, and there’s no evidence they wouldn’t have.

No, this isn’t about lack of Democratic enthusiasm. But given this treatment, it might soon be.

Read more here: http://obsdailyviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/democrats-blow-it-by-moving-obama.html#storylink=cpy

Obama Campaign Strategist Ducks ‘Are You Better Off’ Question September 3, 2012

David Plouffe

The question Democrats didn’t want to answer head-on Sunday: Are Americans better off today than they were four years ago?
Asked the same question repeatedly host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week,” President Barack Obama’s senior White House adviser, David Plouffe, reverted to talking points about job creation and the failings of the Bush administration.
“We were this close to a Great Depression,” Plouffe said at one point, pinching his thumb to his index finger.
Stephanopoulos cut him short.
“You still can’t say yes,” he told Plouffe.
“We’ve clearly improved, George,” Plouffe replied. “We’ve made a lot of progress from the depths of the recession … We’ve got to continue to recover.”
Plouffe then panned Republicans for offering “trickle-down fairy dust” as an elixer for the nation’s economic woes and offered that Americans “know we had a deep hole” to climb out of from 2008 onward.
Earlier , Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod also declined to say whether Americans are better off today than four years ago, saying on “Fox News Sunday” that Americans are in a “better position” than they would’ve been had Republicans been in office.

Look for GOP’s Akin to be Dem Convo Target September 2, 2012

In Tampa, Republicans, especially Missouri Republicans, rarely talked about the situation surrounding Senate candidate Todd Akin’s remarks about “legitimate rape”.
The St.Louis Post-Dispatch reports that won’t be the case in Charlotte for the Democratic convention. Mr. akin may be mentioned early and often.
“State party leaders hope their regrouping in Charlotte, N.C., can be a step toward stopping that rightward drift, as they sharpen a message to bring home that will focus on tax fairness, social issues, slow but steady economic progress — and, of course, Todd Akin.

Akin, the controversial Republican Missouri congressman who is trying to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, was scrupulously absent from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., last week. But you can expect his name to be everywhere at the Democratic convention.

“Nobody on the Republican side can walk away from what Todd Akin said,” warned Mike Sanders, Missouri’s Democratic Party chairman.

Democrats are poised to make sure of it this week, using Akin’s bombshell comments about “legitimate” rape and pregnancy to press the case that the Republicans have drifted so far right that they’re no longer a mainstream party.

“I’d like to have a dollar for every time Todd Akin’s name is mentioned at a microphone” during the convention, predicted Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, a Washington newsletter. “You’ll hear a lot of stuff on cultural issues and women’s issues. I expect there to be many references to Todd Akin.”

Missouri’s battered Democrats might be excused for taking a little too much glee in the Akin controversy. It’s the first bit of good political news they’ve had in a while, with polls showing Obama trailing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney here, and issues such as health care reform and stimulus spending hurting Democrats down the ballot.

“I hear all the time, ‘It’s going to be a rough year for Democrats'” in Missouri, Sanders said. “That is the conventional wisdom.”

He’s hoping the convention will help change that.

“Republicans (in Missouri) tolerate Mitt Romney, but they aren’t excited about Mitt Romney,” Sanders said. “There’s no better time to bring Democrats together.”

McCaskill to Skip Democratic Convention in Charlotte June 26, 2012

Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, one of the most embattled Democrats up for election in the fall, is skipping the Democratic National Convention in September.
McCaskill made the announcement Tuesday. She says she’ll stay in Missouri.
“Historically Claire has not gone to the national convention when she is on the ballot because she believes it’s important to spend as much time as possible in Missouri talking with voters”, said a campaign aide.
As late as last weekend, McCaskill’s campaign didn’t know what here her intentions were when a spokesman was asked about it. More questions popped up since then. That triggered today’s announcement.
Polls have had the first term Democrat in a tight battle for re-election since the campaign started.
Within an hour one of McCcaskill’s potential rivals, former State treasurer Sarah Steelman reacted.
“I don’t care if Senator McCaskill joins her fellow Democrats at the convention in Charlotte or not,” said Steelman.
“Skipping a few cocktail parties and rallies in Charlotte doesn’t distance her from the President, and it won’t convince voters that she’s a born-again moderate.”
In 2004, McCaskill skipped the Democratic Convention in Boston. At the time she was battling incumbent Democratic Governor Bob Holden for the gubernatorial nomination.
The convention that year was the last full week before the August primary. McCaskill and Holden forces skirmished at the convention, but the main battle remained in Missouri, not at the convention
McCaskill won the primary. She lost the general election, however, to Matt Blunt.
Mcaskill was elected to the Senate in 2006.
Rep. Todd Akins, John Brunner and Steelman are running against McCaskill the GOP nominee will be picked at Missouri’s August 7 primary.