The Incredible Shrinking DNC
First it was supposed to be four days with a huge shindig at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which got trimmed to three days with a parade uptown.
Now the DNC confirms that it’s moving Barack Obama’s acceptance speech from Bank of America Stadium to Time Warner Cable Arena. Because of weather concerns. As in an 80% chance of decent skies and a 20% chance of thunderstorms. Right.
More likely an 80% chance that Team BO was sweating some empty seats and a lackluster showing in the 74,000-seat Bailout Stadium and liked their odds better of filling the 21,000-seat arena and being able to gin up some mock hope-and-change mojo.
Team BO insists empty seats weren’t a concern, noting that they’ve already dished out about 65,000 community credentials. Of course, that’s coming from the same DNC braintrust that said they weren’t having any fundraising problems after trimming the convention from four to three days.
In any case, memo to community credential holders who expected to have a seat at the big show but have instead been kicked to the curb: you didn’t really take that whole ‘most open and accessible convention in history’ bit seriously, did you?
The official press release from the DNC:
CHARLOTTE, Sept. 5, 2012 — The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) today announced that convention programming, originally planned for Bank of America Stadium on Thursday, September 6, would be moved to Time Warner Cable Arena, the site of the first two days of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, due to severe weather forecasts. The DNCC also announced that President Barack Obama will address community credential holders in a conference call on Thursday. Call information will be emailed directly to community credential-holders.
“We have been monitoring weather forecasts closely and several reports predict thunderstorms in the area, therefore we have decided to move Thursday’s proceedings to Time Warner Cable Arena to ensure the safety and security of our delegates and convention guests,” said DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan. The energy and enthusiasm for our convention in Charlotte has been overwhelming and we share the disappointment of over 65,000 people who signed up for community credentials to be there with the President in person.
We encourage our community credential holders and Americans across the country to continue to come together with their friends and neighbors to watch and participate in history. The President will speak to these credential holders on a national conference call tomorrow afternoon, and we will work with the campaign to ensure that those unable to attend tomorrow’s event will be invited to see the President between now and election day.”
ABOUT THE DNCC: The 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee is a not-for-profit organization responsible for planning and executing the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, the week of September 3, 2012.
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