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Obama consoles ticketholders

Published by Tracie Mauriello on .

CHARLOTTE -- A conference call with President Obama today was a small consolation for some 50,000 people being turned away from his speech tonight in
Charlotte.

The speech was supposed to be held in the 70,000-seat Bank of America football stadium but the threat of rain prompted the Democratic
National Committee to move it to the much smaller Time Warner Cable Arena.

"The problem was a safety issue. I could not ask you, our volunteers, our law enforcement, first responders to subject themselves to the
risk of severe thunderstorms," Mr. Obama told ticket holders on the conference call.

"I know it's especially disappointing for a lot of you who worked hard to get your tickets to the event, or traveled or planned to travel a
long way at your own expense to be here," he said.

Still, he said, "We can't get a little thunder and lightning get us down," Mr. Obama said.

Republicans, meanwhile, accused organizers of moving the event to avoid the embarrassment of having a less-than-full stadium. Democrats,
including Pennsylvania party chairman Jim Burn, bristle at that charge.

"It's ridiculous to suggest that it's an enthusiasm issue. People lined up around the block for those 65,000 tickets and 19,000 more
were put on a waiting list," Mr. Burn said in an interview late Wednesday.

State delegations are arranging off-site watch parties for ticketholders from their states whose tickets won't be honored, and
the Obama campaign is encouraging others to host house parties.

"I hope that you have just a wonderful time with each other. It won't be as big a crowd and it will be less fanfare and so forth than it
would have been in a football stadium, but the spirit – that's the spirit that's in everybody's living rooms and small towns and big
cities and suburbs all across the country," Mr. Obama said on the conference call.

"That's what got us here in the first place. That's what's going to keep us going and allow us to accomplish all the things we need to do
to strengthen the middle class."

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DNC liveblog/chat tonight

Published by Tim McNulty on .

sleeping catEarly Returns readers: Watching tonight's speeches while also tapping away on your computer? So are we.

I'll be watching VP Joe Biden's DNC speech starting around 9:30 pm tonight, followed by President Obama's address, and making running observations along the way here at the PG's chat site.

Please join in and interact if you can.

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Matt Smith on air in 37th

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Democrat Matt Smith is up with his first ad in the 37th District state Senate race, a positive spot that centers on plans to reduce the size of America's Largest Full-Time State Legislature. (Good luck with that: see Brian O'Neill's column today on the quiet death of the last attempt to do so.)

Smith, a House member from Mt. Lebanon, is running against Republican tech company owner D. Raja. Raja's been on air in the general since last week but the campaign hasn't put the ad online. Smith's buy is cable-only.

Here's the Smith spot:

 

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Anti-Corbett group advertising again

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Remember the largely anonymous Democratic-tied group that started running ads this spring assailing Gov. Tom Corbett's budget cuts, two years before he faces reelection? The spots are running again.

American Working Families has bought time to replay its initial ad (called "Making Things Harder") over the next 10 days. Asked about the buy, spokesman Bud Jackson said in an email that "Our effort is a longterm strategy that will go beyond November."

UPDATE: In response Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley pointed (as he has in the past) to Jackson's working relationship with the House Democratic Campaign Committee:

"Once again, the favorite political consultant of convicted felons Bill DeWeese and Mike Veon is back to throw more mud. Bud Jackson won't say who's paying for these ambush attacks, but he certainly keeps some interesting company."

UPDATE 2: Jackson responded by pointing to the 1986 bribery conviction of a top GOP fundraiser, who is still a top party committeeman:

"Will the governor return all money taken from and raised by convicted felon Bob Asher? Asher has been a central figure in helping the governor and is perhaps his most influential donor.

Tom Corbett is silly enough to try to associate me with Bill DeWeese and Mike Veon whom I either broke ties with or whose problems I had nothing to do with.

Pennsylvania people will now be surprised to know that Tom Corbett has taken millions of dollars from a convicted felon who is one of his right-hand men. Clearly, he says one thing and does another if the price is right."

 

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Ed in the house

Published by James O'Toole on .

CHARLOTTE -- Ed Rendell warned Pennsylvania Democrats against complacence yesterday urging them to ignore reports that the state was moving more securely into the Obama electoral column.

Speaking at the delegation breakfast here, the mayor-turned governor-turned-author-turned-TV-talking-head told his old party colleagues, "Don't be fooled ... I believe that they are laying a little bit of a trap for us.''

He referred to reports that in the face of President Obama's persistent polling lead in the state, third party Republican groups had pulled their advertising money from Pennsylvania airwaves to concentrate on more competitive states.

He reminded the delegates that such decisions could change quickly.

"They have so much money,'' he said. "If they decided to come in and blitz ... the last six or seven week.. all of a sudden it's within the margin of error.''

He lauded the Democrats' plans to register voters and ensure that they have the official identification demanded under the state's controversial new voter ID law, but warned that if those efforts are not successful, it could mean the loss of as many as 100,000 potential Democratic votes on election day.

"I want you to act in the next eight weeks as though we're behind by two points,'' he said, urging the crowd to ignore polls that say otherwise.

Half in jest, he urged the Democrats to make sure that Sen. Bob Casey wins over businessman Tom Smith by the largest possible margin. Noting that the senator had proven one of the state's biggest vote getters, he pointed to Mr. Casey's sole statewide loss and said that people would look back at that race and say of the one politician who had defied him, "That other guy must have been pretty spectacular.''

That other guy, of course, was Ed Rendell, who defeated Mr. Casey in a hard fought Democratic primary for governor in 2002.

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