In January the DNC announced
it would be downsizing its national convention from four days to three.
The first day, September 3rd, would instead be used to celebrate the
region with a big NASCAR-themed kickoff event at Charlotte Motor
Speedway. It makes perfect sense given what a huge NASCAR fan the President is.
Late Monday, the DNC announced another convention downsizing. The big
kickoff event would be moved from the Speedway to downtown Charlotte.
According to spokeswoman Suzi Emmerling
the move was prompted by concern over the logistics of shuttling people
18 miles to and from the track. Logistically it just makes more sense
to have the kickoff downtown with the rest of the events.
Of course the Charlotte Motor Speedway hasn't moved since January, so why is this just becoming a problem now? Bloomberg News has the answer.
"With a party ban on direct contributions
from corporations, the host committee has raised less than $10
million, well short of its $36.6 million goal..." Ouch! Less than ten
million is bad. It's also vague. How much less than ten million did they
raise?
With Democrats unable to raise even one-third of their fundraising
goal, they were forced to cut a few more corners off their already
stunted convention. They'll need whatever money is left to outfit the 74,000 seat Carolina Panthers football stadium for Obama's nomination acceptance speech. Hopefully Britney Spears' set designer can come up with another colonnade of Doric columns on the cheap.
Usually any shortfalls in corporate campaign cash are quickly made up for by the Democrats' union friends. In this
case, that's not happening because of more poor planning by Democrats.
North Carolina is a right-to-work state, so unions "have been reluctant
to contribute to
the convention because Charlotte lacks unionized hotels and is
in a state where compulsory union membership or the payment of
dues is prohibited as an employment condition."
But apart from the shortened convention, the last minute change of
venue for the big kickoff event, the failure to raise even a third of
the necessary funding, and irritating their best donors--other than
that--this year's DNC Convention is shaping up to be amazing.
ON BREITBART TV
Flashback: Mayor Announces Recently Cancelled Dem Convention Kick-Off Event