The Dems Getting Nervous About The Temple Of O (The Barackopolis)
Politico is reporting that senior Democratic officials are expressing serious concerns about the political risks posed by Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium Thursday evening.
From the elaborate stagecraft to the teeming crowd of 80,000 cheering partisans, the vagaries of the weather to the unpredictable audience reaction, the optics surrounding the stadium event have heightened worries that the Obama campaign is engaging in a high-risk endeavor in an uncontrollable environment.
A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama’s convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and that it gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate.
“We already know he is a rock star, we already know he can bring 85,000 people together in a stadium. He has done it multiple times. He needs to talk to people who haven’t made up their minds yet,” said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
“It’s likely that the campaign would do it differently if it had to do it again because the decision was made before the European trip,” said a senior Democratic elected officeholder who has worked closely with the Obama campaign. The GOP narrative of Obama as celebrity took root during that trip, where the Illinois senator played to large crowds of adoring Europeans.
They should be worried. McCain has effectively nailed Obama on his image of a “rock star” or a celebrity that is famous for being famous.  The European trip marked the beginning of the decline for Obama. His team has had weeks to scale this thing back or scrap it all together. Instead, they chose to go with the original plan, using the excuse that the venue allows “the people” in. Don’t forget that in order to attend this, one had to work for the tickets to get in. It appears that money what is driving this:
The campaign noted that, aside from the speech itself, it’s designed to be “a working event” that enables attendees to phone bank and reach out to potential voters through a variety of online tools. Holding the speech in a venue that holds 80,000 people also allows tens of thousands of Colorado residents to attend and participate ” no small consideration since Colorado is a battleground state where Obama and McCain are neck and neck in the polls.
Ed points out:
Obama needs the speech as a direct fundraiser in other ways as well. He’s already hit up major contributors for million-dollar luxury suites and thousand-dollar VIP seating. His campaign broke a pledge to eschew PACs and lobbyists in order to wring every last cent out of this speech. Obama can’t simply cancel this and move it back to the Pepsi Center; it would cost him millions of dollars.
August 28, 2008 - 08:45 AM on August 28th, 2008
[...] Original post by Pam [...]
August 28, 2008 - 10:40 PM on August 28th, 2008
HA! More stupidity from the morons who populate this site. Fact is, the event came off flawlessly. I find the word
“need,” offered here in an attempt to describe Obama’s fundraising quite curious. Obama raised twice as much as the old whore McCain in July and August. I heard today that McCain is having to give tickets away to his acceptance event, even though the venue only holds 10,000. 80,000 people paid cash money to be part of history today in Denver. Face it — it sucks to be you.
Wake up, “my friends.” You are oblivious to reality.
August 28, 2008 - 10:59 PM on August 28th, 2008
Mike Farrace-
Who is the moron? Those people didn’t pay to get in, the delegates got in because they are a part of the convention and the other tickets had to be earned..had you bothered to follow the link, you would have known that!
“I got a call that if I want the tickets I have to volunteer two shifts of three hours apiece ” for one ticket. If I want two tickets, then it’s four shifts of two hours apiece,”said Berenice Christensen.
Another 7NEWS viewer sent an e-mail that said, “I received a call Monday saying I could ‘qualify’ for the tickets if I do 12 hours of volunteer work for the Obama campaign between now and Friday the 15th.â€
The viewer e-mail goes on to say, “To work 40 hours at my job, get to and from work, get to and from the campaign office and complete the 12 hours in three days would be next to impossible.â€
Now on to the next point, the fundraising…Obama has raised $350 million as of July, broke his promise to go on public financing for the general election campaign, and broke his promise that soft money wouldn’t pay for the party.
August 28, 2008 - 11:01 PM on August 28th, 2008
Mike – you say that you’re a ‘Democrat willing to listen’ and that you seek ‘intelligent debate’ – - yet, the first time you visit our site to participate in discussion, you start out by calling the people here morons and stupid?
I think you lied.
August 29, 2008 - 07:49 AM on August 29th, 2008
Yeah, that moron thing was over the top — I apologize. It was rude and stupid and I’m sorry.
And you are right – volunteering was the primary currency to attend, not “cash money,” something I did know about, by the way. A small number of tickets were indeed sold and I thought it was much larger, and I thought volunteering was an option rather than the only way to get seats. I thought it made sense to give that opportunity to people who couldn’t afford to donate. The link, by the way, is not to a source, just back to the poster.
I just get excited when I see the same old stuff over and over. This bit about the convention risks — the size of the event, the columns behind the stage, the parsing of casual conversation from campaign people who worry about this or that — it’s MSNBC/CNN/Fox fodder and I guess I think blogs should dig a little deeper. While I did switch back and forth among all the channels, I have spent more time watching CSPAN’s coverage of the convention, which was a PLEASURE, without partisan commentary and letting reality speak for itself. Yesterday was a great example. While retired generals gave a substantial and interesting speech in the background, MSNBC and CNN (I didn’t go to Fox) were droning on and on about something I can’t even recall it was so pointless. I found that throughout the convention, really. Lots of people in and around the convention speaking passionately about a wide range of topics, including Republicans, Independents and others not necessarily driven by agendas but by issues, were ignored by the networks and news channels. But there was no shortage of GOP campaign consultants there to trash the convention. I assume the reverse will be true next week. Mainstream media does little actual fact gathering before reporting, at least on daily coverage. It’s shameful. But they will breathlessly report that a private plane actually flew from Alaska to Ohio (like that never happens) that might contain the governor from Alaska and then extrapolate to the point of absurdity.
And the campaign contribution issue — two things, really. Obama merely agreed to come to an agreement with McCain about public financing, which would include controlling 527s as well as accepting public funds. It’s another example of how campaigns, but particularly Republicans, remove all nuance to mislead. I don’t understand why this is such a big issue, anyway. What would you have done if you found such a groundswell of support, especially when all you did was fill out a questionnaire from some organization? Any politician has to make winning job one and to handicap himself when he has such an incredible source of financial support would have been stupid. And, at the end of the day, taxpayers saved $84 million. And I think it’s a bit preposterous to criticize Obama in this way when McCain clearly waffled about whether or not to accept public funding. He is, in fact, being sued over the way he borrowed money using public funding as collateral. Lawyers are arguing. FEC decision is pending. But to me, it’s another non-issue. The candidates do what gets them the most to spend.
Speaking of 527s and the soft money, Obama told MoveOn to back off, which they have done. McCain says he can’t control his 527 groups. He might not be able to order them to stop, or to be truthful, but he’s hardly powerless.
August 29, 2008 - 07:58 AM on August 29th, 2008
Mike,
Thanks for taking a step back. Welcome to Right Voices.
We may not always see eye to eye, but if you make the effort to put forth your argument, the opposing side will listen.
August 29, 2008 - 08:18 AM on August 29th, 2008
Mike-
On your points:
No, Barack Obama passed on public financing for the general election, breaking a pledge he made last year to accept federal money and spending restrictions if the Republican candidate also agreed to it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_el_pr/obama_money
Obama has out raised McCain by at least a 2:1 margin. How is the money being spent? I am in Michigan, a “battleground” state, and I am not seeing it being spent here. Where is the money going?
Candidates don’t control 527’s. Neither Obama nor McCain can do that.
McCain is being sued? You do know that the paperwork filed with the FEC was a show for you, don’t you? You do know that when Dean made that proclamation, he knew full well that we haven’t an active FEC board? There were only 2 committee members on the board, therefore rendering it useless.
Obama told MoveOn to back off? When did he do that? When did they backoff? As I said, candidates don’t control 527’s…Obama may denounce certain things a 527 does, but if caught directing the operations of one, he would find himself in violation of campaign finance laws.