Dems may move Obama’s #DNC2012 speech to BOA Stadium – to attract wealthy donors

Bloomberg News reports an intriguing bit of info on the possibility that the Democrat National Convention Committee may be moving the site of Obama’s 2012 nomination acceptance speech to Bank of America stadium – because they desperately need cash from wealthy donors to pay for convention costs:

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is considering moving the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Bank of America Stadium to sell more skyboxes to wealthy donors, according to three Democrats involved in the fundraising.

The almost 74,000-seat home of the Carolina Panthers professional football team would also have room for the convention to sell more floor passes close to the stage. Planners for the event are struggling to meet a $36.6 million fundraising goal, according to the Democrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

Obama’s advisers are aware of the political downside of the president delivering his nationally televised acceptance in a stadium named for a bank that considered imposing a fee that he said would have β€œmistreated” customers, they said.

That would be outweighed by the chance to lure more big- dollar contributors, including corporate foundations, to cover the convention’s costs, the three Democrats said. The rest of the convention, scheduled to begin Sept. 3, will be conducted at the Time Warner Cable Arena.

Joanne Peters, press secretary for the Charlotte convention, said, β€œWe plan to hold the convention at the Time Warner Cable Arena.”

LMAO. This is so rich – literally and figuratively speaking. ;)

Continuing:

The Charlotte host committee is having difficulty raising money because it’s prohibited from taking funds from corporations and lobbyists, which parties have relied on in the past for nominating conventions, the people said.

The host committee is trying to work around the restrictions, imposed by Obama, by asking for β€œin-kind” contributions from corporations and accepting unlimited funds from non-profit organizations such as charitable foundations associated with major corporations.

Jim Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy Corp. and chairman of the Charlotte host committee, has tried to clarify the rules for potential donors.

At a Dec. 15 briefing at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, Rogers, along with Steve Kerrigan, the convention’s chief executive officer, sought to enlist federally registered lobbyists, who are barred from contributing directly to Obama’s campaign or convention, to get corporate clients to help underwrite the convention, according to two of the people.

What a surprise. Not.

President Obama dishonestly claimed in the lead up to the 2008 elections and beyond that he was a man responsible “only to the people”, and skirted around the technical definition of the word “lobbyist” so he could try to credibly claim that he didn’t take money from lobbyists – and here we are closing in on four years later and the song remains the same … and the players liars, of course, haven’t “changed” a bit, including our celebrity President himself.

Just to be clear, if a candidate wants to wine and dine wealthy donors, go for it. However, I do and WILL take issue with the hypocrisy of a Chicago Way type like Barack Obama lecturing the GOP on supposedly being beholden “to the rich” because they put on ritzy, glitzy fundraisers from time to time, too. The President and the other demagogues in his entourage need to fess up – no, MAN up is the appropriate word here, and stop demonizing his opponents for doing what he himself (not to mention many other politicos in his party) routinely do.

Not holding my breath, tho, waiting on that to happen. I’m sure you all understand why.

And how amusing is it the The One’s big speech could very well take place in the stadium sponsored by the “big bank” that became one of the main symbols of “corporate greed” by Occupiers nationwide and which was targeted accordingly, including by Occupy Charlotte?

Oh well. Maybe to make it up to the Occupiers and other various and assorted anti-capitalism types on the left the President and the DNC could just recycle the Greek temple he used back in 2008 …

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