DNC 2012: Run Away, Run Away!
What happens if you throw a party and nobody comes? Charlotte might learn the hard way, as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is now proactively encouraging candidates facing reelection to steer clear of Barack Obama’s coronation in BanksterTown USA:
The Democrat charged with trying to win back the House majority is telling his candidates that it’s OK to skip the party’s national convention.
Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told a gathering hosted by Reuters his advice has nothing to do with President Obama.
“If they want to win an election, they need to be in their district,” Israel said yesterday at the Reuters Washington Summit.
Yes, because missing a scant four three days from the campaign trail more than two months out from an election would obviously be just devastating, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Democrat candidates fleeing the shadow of a toxic top of the ticket. Or so Israel tries to spin it, insisting he’d be giving the same advice even if Obama “was at 122% favorability right now.”
Of course it’s no coincidence that Democrat candidates wanting to bypass the DNC are considered vulnerable in their home states, and showing up to party alongside an increasingly unpopular and polarizing president isn’t the best way to win favor with potential swing-vote independents.
Israel’s abandon ship directive comes in the wake of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s announcement that she was joining the growing ranks of high-profile Democrats skipping the Queen City’s big bash. Also running for a lifeboat: West Virginia senator Joe Manchin; Montana senator Jon Fester; Utah congressman Jim Matheson; West Virginia governor Ray Tomblin; West Virginia congressman Nick Rahall; New York congressmen Bill Owens and Kathy Hochul; and Pennsylvania congressman Mark Critz.
Good thing Team BO moved the DNC’s nominating ceremony to Bank of America stadium to accommodate an overflow crowd, eh? Double good that Charlotte officials went through all the angst and turmoil of twisting free speech guarantees into knots with their Extraordinary Events ordinances; OWS protestors and other assorted loons might be the only ones to show up for the big party.
And make no mistake, this is Charlotte’s official World Class Gala; city and county staffers have spent countless hours – on a clock funded by local tax dollars, by the way – planning for the DNC, not to mention the local cost of infrastructure improvements and equipment upgrades. At what point does the uptown lunch bunch begin to feel they’ve been stuck with a seriously skunked party.
Indeed, Gov. Bev Perdue’s proclamation back when Charlotte landed the DNC that, “We’re not just the New South, we are the New America,” has steadily morphed into a slightly less inspiring rallying cry:
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