As I wrote on Sunday, Democrats are already offering free tickets to Bank of America stadium to see President Obama formally accept the Democratic nomination for President on Thursday, and close out the Democratic National Convention.
Now, the Associated Press (h/t Fox News) has confirmed that the free tickets aren’t enough to guarantee a sold out crowd to watch the president’s acceptance speech. They will also be supplying a bus service through various outlets around the region.
College students from across North Carolina will arrive in Charlotte by the busload. Same with members of predominantly black churches in neighboring South Carolina.
Their goal: help fill a 74,000-seat outdoor stadium to capacity when President Obama accepts the Democratic nomination Thursday night.
Anything short of a full house on the final night of the Democratic Party’s national convention will be instant fodder for Republicans eager to use empty seats as symbols of waning voter enthusiasm for Obama.
Democrats have been fretting for months over whether the president can draw a capacity crowd at Bank of America Stadium. Polls show voter enthusiasm is down, as are Obama’s crowds for his battleground state campaign rallies.
As was the case with the offer of free tickets, there’s nothing wrong with providing a free bus service to attract supporters to your candidate’s speech. However, it is a telling signal of a weakening and confidence deprived campaign.
In 2008, then Senator Obama easily packed the 84,000 seat stadium in Denver to accept his party’s nomination. But this is 2012 and the Obama campaign is having to face some hard realities about the change in voter enthusiasm surrounding their candidate.
Even if Obama had used buses in 2008 to draw in supporters to see his speech, he certainly didn’t need to do so to get them there.
In 2012, he absolutely needs to.
Despite the puffery by Obama campaign spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, that they were “confident we’ll be full” when asked about the possibility of empty seats for Thursday, it appears mother nature may provide a fail safe in case the free tickets and busing proves to be insufficient. (h/t Instapundit)
“Democrats are poised to avoid the danger of President Barack Obama accepting his party’s nomination before a partially-empty stadium by shifting his speech to an indoor arena and citing ‘severe weather’.
The capacity of the indoor arena? 20,000.
This is the state of Obamamania circa 2012, a shell of its former self.
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Comments
“Free entry tickets plus a free bus ride? Hmmmmmmmm. Well, I dunno. I got think this one through. You know, my time’s valuable.”
“Tell you what. Throw in some lottery tickets, something to eat like ribs or pork rinds, something to drink (if you know what I mean), and maybe some cigarettes. Then I’d probably do it.”
No, no. This is all about Pres. Empty Chair wanting to play to more “intimate” venues!
(See Tap, Spinal)
I see Drudge is mentioning the possibility that rather than looking like fools in a large stadium…perhaps a change in location. Unexpectedly, weather is a sudden concern at the height of hurricane season.
As Jon Lovitz would say as Tommy Flanagan…thsts the ticket..its…its the weather not reduced enthusiasm.
Yeah. Thats the ticket.
And as a good and caring citizen? Here is an alternate location for Obama’s big event. Im sure he would be well received. And plenty of empty seating
http://www.celebrityhousepictures.com/clint-eastwood.php
Oh my! Dems are Downsizing from a 74,000 seat venue to a 20,000 seat venue for Barack Obama’s speech? Democrats are suffering from that condition known klismos kenophobia, or fear of the empty chair!
“THIS WEEK IN CHARLOTTE”
This week in Charlotte, pigs will fly
And time, itself, will be unwound
Obama’s minions glibly lie
And “truth to power” won’t be found
This week in Charlotte
This week in Charlotte, history
Will hide her flaming face in shame
As Media Whores spread false stories
Of how and why our crises came
This week in Charlotte
This week in Charlotte, “talking heads”
Will reassure us “all is well”
So we’ll sleep “safely” in our beds
Until we wake in BO’s hell
This week in Charlotte.
NO RIGHTS RESERVED: Weep for our nation, this week in Charlotte. BO never forgot a WORD of “Rev. Wright”: “G@d D@mn America”
At the DNC this week, Fleetwood Mac will be doing “Shake Your Moneymaker,” “I’m Worried,” “Save Me,” “I’m So Afraid,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Say Goodbye,” “Save Me A Place,” “Stop Messin’ Around,” “My Little Demon,” and “That’s Enough For Me.”
Is anybody here going to watch any of the speeches of the dems before they bring them back to their padded rooms at the insane asylum? It might be good to have a nice hearty laugh at the abortionpalooza going on in Charlotte…
On another note, what happened to all the other polling companies??? I think it is really interesting that the only polls we got to see after the Republican convention, other than the registered voters Reuters poll, were tracking polls like Rasmussen’s and Gallup’s who do not release cross tabs. I bet that every pollster, a “coincidence of course”, will be releasing polls to show as big of a bounce for the OTeam as possible.
I must admit, I am looking forward to Clinton’s speech. I suspect that Clinton doesn’t really like Obama after the 2008 primary, so I am wondering if he might slip a figurative knife into Obama’s back in his speech.
That would be so awesome.
I am so embarrassed – last night I turned on the TV (not checking the listings) and for more than half an hour watched what I thought was the d-cRAT socialist convention. Turns out I was actually watching the movie The Island of Dr. Moreau – and all those creatures weren’t the d-cRAT delegates and Moreau wasn’t bumbling Bite-Me biden. In my defense, I think most people who understand the d-cRAT socialist party might make that same mistake.
That rat did all kinds of free busing to my caucus, in 08, where the obots took over, chose the delegates to send on to the next level, AND
turned this lifelong dem into a Republican.
Where did I read that the former “Liberals” are now “progressives”?
The Ron Paul people tried to do the same thing in our caucus, by trying to install a new chairman for the meeting in order to tilt the scales in their favor. They also tried to shout us down with voice votes and filibuster the proceedings to make an hour and a half long process a six hour ordeal. I am sick and tired of whiny self entitled people on both sides.
1. The Ron Paul people tried to do the same thing in our caucus…
I’ve seen rumors to that effect. There have also been rumors that the Paul people insinuated false-flag delegates into their opponents’ primary-election slates.
So I’m wondering if the GOP convention’s kerfluffle about rules was the Republican gentry reinforcing their position against the peasants, or a legitimate attempt to prevent dirty pool, or some of both.
2. As far as Democrat venue-switching goes, there’s also this advantage: if the Democrats bus in say 50K people to a stadium that seats 74K, that’s a public-relations disaster; if those 50K people are filmed trying to get into an arena that seats 20K, that can and will be hyped.
Yes, the dems decided that to cover their move to the little bitty venue, they would simply say it was done because rain was expected. So, whether it rains or not they will claim they THOUGHT it would rain, so they figured better “safe than sorry.”
Since they have enough delegates and press to fill the little Arena, any “ordinary” people will get stuck in a small section of the big empty stadium looking at screens. Then the dems will enthusiastically call those people “overflow” crowds – and they and the media will pretend it was planned this way all along.
I hope it’s a clear and beautiful day in Charlotte on Thursday.
…….and not give a whit (which I don’t either, but I’m not a ‘rat) about the people they turned away, people who drove or rode miles with tickets to get in. “F ’em”, would be the obastard’s campaign attitude toward them.
Might as well print off T-shirts that say “All that’s left of Hope’n Change is pocket change.” Obama 2012 is diminishing expectations.
If they’re looking to recruit Obamanauts, they need to be bringing in the short buses, no offence ya know…
Don’t remember if I’ve said it on here before, I know I’ve said it a couple of places, I am convinced this is going to be an electoral landslide of Nixon/McGovern proportions, or at least Reagan/Carter.
Sock Puppet isn’t going to be defeated, he is going to be utterly refudiated.
I’ve been thinking for months now that signs like this are contradicting the polls and may, in the end, be more important.
IOW, the polls say that Obama and Romney are running (roughly) even, but all the other signs show Romney ahead.
If I’m right, then Romney is going to win the election in a blow out. If I’m wrong, Romney will only win by a little bit. None of the signs point toward an Obama win.
Unless there are signs I’m not seeing.
I just checked a few weather channels on the Internet and the forecast for Thursday in Charlotte is as follows: “Isolated Thunderstorms with a 30% chance of thunderstorms. That’s down from 60% chance tonight and 40% chance tomorrow on Wednesday. And the chances are decreasing later Thursday because on Friday the forecast is Partly Cloudy with a 20% chance of rain.
Might as well blame the weather on Bush and the Republicans, as Al Sharpton (or was it Reverend Jackson) blamed the actual hurricane, Katrina, on them.
The “free” bus is only free if it isn’t paid for with my tax dollars. If the DNC pays for the busses, fine, if they’re paid for out of tax dollars I want to see someone go to jail. (Fat chance, but someone tell me tax payers aren’t footing the bill.)
No More Years!!!! No More Years!!!! No More Years!!!!!
When I heard that they were thinking of moving from the stadium to the 20,000-seat arena, coupled with their pathetic attempts to give away tickets, my first thought was that they have probably given out tickets for less than 20,000 seats. There is no way that they would bus people in from Tennessee and Georgia(!!) only to have to tell them that the smaller venue has left them with no seats. If they were anywhere near giving out 73,000 tickets, can you imagine the outrage of 53,000 day-trippers wandering the streets of Charlotte??
Actually, Theater Charlotte has a nice venue. 221 seats, low rent.
http://theatrecharlotte.org/facilityinfo.shtml
Empty Chair … meet empty seats.
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