Obama to Virginia: ‘It depends on you’
President Obama will make his way to the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, but before heading to North Carolina he made one final campaign stop Tuesday — in must-win Virginia.
The president’s stop at Norfolk State University underscored two key elements of his re-election strategy: His need to win Virginia again and his need to reenergize the young voters and African-American voters so critical to his success in 2008.
If he can win Virginia, the president can lose two other hotly contested swing states, Florida and Ohio, and still win a second term. His Republican rival, Mitt Romney, meanwhile, would have a hard time beating Obama if he fails to win Virginia.
“Virginia,” the president said Tuesday, “it depends on you.”
The president also shared his thoughts about last week’s Republican National Convention and ripped his fall rival, Mitt Romney.
“When my opponent had the chance to offer his secret sauce, he did not offer a single new idea,” the president said.”It was just retreads of the same old policies that have been sticking it to the middle class for years.”
At one point the audience began to boo Romney.
“Don’t Boo!” the president shouted. “Vote!”
GOP delivers ‘You didn’t build that’ Legos
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Republicans invading the Democratic Convention assailed President Obama’s self-grade of “incomplete” and distributed a swag bag that included a “You Didn’t Build That” box of Legos and a package of Kleenex for Democrats sad over leaving the president for Mitt Romney.
“The Legos are so you can build it,” said Republican Party spokesman Sean Spicer, a slap at Obama’s earlier comment that government gets some credit for helping build small businesses. “The Kleenex are for those breaking up with Obama,” he added.
The swag bag was a softer touch than the new ads the GOP unveiled, including one suggesting that even former President Jimmy Carter wouldn’t approve of Obama’s handling of the economy. Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu called Carter “our latest surrogate.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley noted that when her children brought home a grade of incomplete “that means they fail, unless there is summer school, and there is no summer school.”
Sununu, who once taught at Tufts University, said an incomplete is code language for failure. “He thought the ‘I’ was for incomplete,” said
Sununu. “The ‘I’ was for incompetent.”
Obama pollster: No Romney race card
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One of the big debates over the past weeks has been over whether Mitt Romney is using the race card against President Obama in an ad hitting the president for changing the 1996 welfare reform law that requires recipients to work for the money.
On Tuesday, Obama’s pollster Joel Benenson seemed to put an end to the debate when he refused to join with those who believe the Romney campaign is race-baiting. “I have no idea if they are playing the race card,” he said, noting that the Romney ad isn’t moving white voters away from Obama.
At a breakfast hosted by National Journal and the Atlantic, Benenson told a gathering hosted by National Journal and the Atlantic that Obama avoids using his race in the election. “We are going to win this election based on the merits, based on who he is, based on what he is doing for working average Americans,” said Benenson.
But other Democratic pollsters in the room didn’t agree. Three said Romney was using race to drive white voters from Obama. John Anzalone, Celinda Lake and Margie Omero, all said that Romney was using the welfare ad as a wedge issue to split voters racially. “They are trying to touch a nerve,” said Anzalone.
Kaine quotes Trace Adkins GOP song lyrics — without credit
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine gave a powerful endorsement of President Obama at the opening of the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night and predicted that the gritty nation had a bright future, declaring, “tough times don’t last, tough people do.”
Sound familiar? It should. Because just last week, at the Republican National Convention, country giant Trace Adkins introduced a brand new song about the gritty nation coming back. It’s been adopted as the unofficial GOP theme song.
Adkins sang: “Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” Naturally, the song is titled “Tough people do.”
Said Kaine: “We’ve been through tough times, but we’re tough people. Tough times don’t last. Tough people do. Let’s come together, show how tough we are and prove our best days will always be ahead of us.”
No mention of Adkins or his song, though.
It is unclear if he knew of the song or not, but an aide tweeted that the former Virginia governor “is our best speechwriter by a mile” and tinkered with it even as he headed to the podium.
More seats, fewer people
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America Stadium will be filled to capacity when President Obama gives his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, according to his campaign. But the campaign is expecting 9,000 fewer attendees than the stadium’s capacity for Carolina Panthers football games there.
“The way the stadium is constructed, its capacity is 74,000 for football,” Obama communications director Brent Colburn said Tuesday. “Our capacity is going to be lower on Thursday night because of staging, place for media, security, so we’re looking at approximately 65,000. We expect 65,000 to show up.”
Yet, when Obama accepted the nomination four years ago at Denver’s Invesco Field (since renamed Sports Authority Field) the reverse was true — the speech drew more than the stadium’s capacity for football games.
Invesco’s seating capacity was 76,125 in 2008, but when Obama spoke there, DNC organizers estimated the crowd at over 84,000. They increased capacity by opening up the field to seating.
Colburn said the campaign still expects the president to speak at the outdoor stadium despite the possibility of rain.
By Tim Carney, Philip Klein and Paul Bedard
