Yes, finally we get to writing about something I know about-- politics is my beat.
In early July the DNC organizers announced Senator Barack Obama was moving his acceptance speech for the presidential race from the 20,000 capacity convention center to the 75,000 capacity Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver on August 28, the last day of the convention.
Thousands felt excitment that there will be a good chance they may be able to attend as Obama was opening this historic event to the masses. This certainly is rock-superstar stuff!
However, subsequent reports and bloggers have questioned whether the Democratic Campaign, already $10million short, can afford the costs of the stadium - let alone the fact it would be logistics and security nightmare.
Being on the volunteer waitlist at the Denver DNC, I emailed to ask where and when I could purchase tickets for the event only to be told tickets were not for sale - they will be 'distributed'.
To Whom????
And lately, my inbox has been bombarded with the 'lottery' to win tickets to the convention if I donated as little as $5 to the campaign.
Well, I thought the smart thing would be for the DNC to SELL the tickets to the public for an extortional price. This is the land of making money! I paid $350 for scalped tickets to take my teenage son to Justin Timberlake last year at MSG-- I would gladly pay that much to see Obama's acceptance speech in Denver.
AND DO THE MATHS!
75,000 x $150/$200= ...... that would pay all of Hillary's debt and more.
Which brings me to voter/donation fatigue.
As an Obama supporter even I am tiring of the thrice weekly emails asking for donations. I would rather just pay for these tickets -- even if it is expensive, at least I am getting immediate gratification.
Finally, a staging of this magnitude is escalating expectations of Obama's acceptance speech to astromonical-stratosphere heights. This is being promoted along the lines of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream...." speech and Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you....." ... speech....
I bet Obama's speechwriters are having sleepless nights....
anita
Totally hear you on donation fatigue. I work in fundraising myself and no sooner do I give a gift to the Obama campaign or DNC that I get a phone call, email or solicitation immediately following...sometimes to ask if I can "improve" upon my gift! I send replies and try to emphasize the point of stewardship - make people feel adequately thanked before hitting them up again - but to no avail. On the one hand, the Obama campaign definitely did SOMETHING right to break all these fundraising records - but I agree that there are also lost opportunities, like the convention tickets you'd mentioned.
ReplyDeleteFrankly I think the Clinton camp needs to assume responsibility for spending down its money as recklessly as it did and making poor choices, but that's another discussion!