Confirmed: #DNC2012 acceptance speech will take place at BOA stadium

It’s been speculated about for months, and the Bloomberg news outlet put a more official stamp on the rumors last week.Β  Today in a presser, Democrat National Convention Committee officials confirmed that President Obama will indeed make Β his acceptance speech not at Time Warner Cable Arena as originally scheduled but at the much bigger Bank of America Stadium instead:

This year’s Democratic National Convention will shrink from four days to three, and include public events at the Charlotte area’s two largest venues — Bank of America Stadium and Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Officials announced the changes this morning at a news conference on the sidelines of Bank of America Stadium, which featured the convention logo on its electronic scoreboards.

President Obama will deliver his acceptance speech at the 74,000-seat stadium on Sept. 6, the last night of the convention, just as he did four years ago in Denver.

“From the start, this convention has been about engaging more people in the process,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee. “We saw in Denver in 2008 how holding the president’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field allowed more people to be part of the process….

“We wanted the convention to be about more than the pageantry and speeches you see on TV.”

In lieu of the convention opening on Monday, Sept. 3 — Labor Day — organizers plan to hold an event at the speedway to showcase not only the Charlotte region but the South. What exactly that will entail is unclear.

Several speakers, including Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, appeared to go out of their way to say the event would “celebrate North Carolina and Virginia” as well as the South. Obama carried both states in 2008.

I watched the presser this morning on News 14 Charlotte (see local media coverage of it here) and the hatefulΒ Wasserman Schultz all but admitted what we’ve known all along: That this city was chosen for political reasons more so than any other. Β  While it’s true President Obama won this state and turned it blue for the first time since Jimmy Carter, he won this state by the smallest margin of any of the states he won in 2008 Β and Wassserman Schultz said that with the pick of Charlotte as the host city the Obama campaign was showing it wants to be competitive here in North Carolina again this year.Β And with hosting a so-called “non-partisan” event at Charlotte Motor Speedway – which is actually in Concord, on the Charlotte line – Democrats are showing that they’ll fight for the Southern blue collar vote, which they’ll buy if they have to (which is usually the case).

As to the irony of President Obama giving his acceptance speech at a stadium named for the bank which his liberal Occupiers have made one of the primary symbols of “corporate greed” in America, Iowahawk sums it up well (via Jim Treacher):

When President Classy McWarfare gives his acceptance speech at the Bailout Bowl, this time he can use REAL Greek columns.Β #nomorestyrofoam

Heh.

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