Democrat (& a Republican) leaders to skip party conventions

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werepossum

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Jul 10, 2006
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Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is the latest Democrat politician to announce she's skipping the Democrat convention where President Obama will be officially nominated. At least one Republican Representative will do the same.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politic...partys-national-convention-continues-to-grow/

There may be some extra hotel space in Charlotte, N. C. come the beginning of September, as several Democratic elected officials have announced that they will not be attending the Democratic National Convention this year.

Earlier today, Talking Points Memo reported that Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill will not be attending the convention, becoming the third Democratic senator, and eighth Democratic member of Congress, to opt out of the event.

Late Tuesday she tweeted, ” Whole lot of nothing over me campaigning w/Mo folks instead of going to convention w/party honchos. Bet POTUS agrees with my decision.”
Several of the elected officials who have decided to forgo the convention hail from places where Obama is unpopular; West Virginia’s Democratic House Rep. Nick Rahall, Sen. Joe Manchin and its governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, have all announced they’re not going. Obama’s low popularity in the state is perhaps best exemplified by the strong performance of prison inmate Keith Russell Judd in the state’s Democratic presidential primary. Other elected Democrats not going include Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana.

McCaskill is in the same boat as her colleagues from West Virginia, Utah and Montana, in the sense that she hails from a state where Obama is unpopular- a Gallup poll from Janury, 2012 put his approval rating in the state at just 39 percent- and she faces a tough re-election campaign this cycle.

However, her decision to stay away is significant because she was an early endorser of Obama in 2008, and a big surrogate for his campaign. Obama narrowly lost Missouri in 2008– but by a margin of less than one percentage point– making it one of the closest states in the general election. ”You can’t underestimate the importance of Claire McCaskill to this campaign,” senior Obama campaign adviser Anita Dunn said at the time. This cycle, ABC News rates the state as solidly Republican.

Democrats are not alone, Republican elected officials have opted not to attend this year’s GOP convention in Tampa Bay, Fla. as well. Recently, Montana Rep. and GOP Senate nominee Denny Rehberg announced he would not be attending. Rehberg has been distancing himself to some degree from the Republican congress, he recently ran an ad in which he criticized Paul Ryan’s budget proposal.

Party leaders skipping their party’s conventions is not an entirely new phenomenon: Claire McCaskill has actually skipped her party’s convention before, in 2004. In 2008 several GOP senators facing re-election including Susan Collins of Maine skipped out on the festivities in Minnesota.

I've got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I applaud politicians putting their constituents' interests ahead of their careers, which the West Virginia contingent clearly is doing. On the other, I suspect the vast majority are merely trying to put some phony political distance between themselves and the President (or Romney.) McCaskill in particular is transparent. She has been one of Obama's staunchest and closest supporters since he first ran, and assuming both win re-election will once again be one of his staunchest and closest supporters.
 

hal2kilo

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Feb 24, 2009
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Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is the latest Democrat politician to announce she's skipping the Democrat convention where President Obama will be officially nominated. At least one Republican Representative will do the same.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politic...partys-national-convention-continues-to-grow/



I've got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I applaud politicians putting their constituents' interests ahead of their careers, which the West Virginia contingent clearly is doing. On the other, I suspect the vast majority are merely trying to put some phony political distance between themselves and the President (or Romney.) McCaskill in particular is transparent. She has been one of Obama's staunchest and closest supporters since he first ran, and assuming both win re-election will once again be one of his staunchest and closest supporters.

The whole thing is silly. Are you in the party or not? What, McCaskill's going to win more independent votes if she doesn't show up at the convention?
Is the voting public really this dumb?
 

Anarchist420

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Denny Rehberg is pretty good, he thinks independently, and I like that he's trying to expose Ryan's budget. He's gained more of my respect for not coming to the RNC.

Something that made furious about the last RNConvention was when they invited Lieberman but banned Dr. Paul.
 
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werepossum

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Jul 10, 2006
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The whole thing is silly. Are you in the party or not? What, McCaskill's going to win more independent votes if she doesn't show up at the convention?
Is the voting public really this dumb?
McCaskill, like probably most such politicians, is running from association with an unpopular President after three years of being cheek to jowl, so I guess we'll see if voters really are that dumb. I think though that the West Virginia contingent are honestly pissed; West Virginia runs on two things, coal and government pork, and Obama has quite openly declared war on one of those two things. I'm guessing Rehberg is also being honest, as Montana is fairly Republican and I can't see him gaining any net votes for his stunt. Perhaps he has Presidential aspirations, but most prefer to shout their independence without actually alienating the party power structure unless, like McCaskill, they are desperate.

I tend to agree with you that if you are that opposed to the party, you should just leave it. But considering the advantages conferred by a party in raising money, getting volunteers, and moving up in the hierarchy, and how much of the opposing party's platform a politician has likely declaimed to be the work of the devil, I can understand why so many politicians exercise their ethics in small doses.
 

bfdd

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Feb 3, 2007
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Hopefully the Libertarian party or the Liberty movement starts moving in on these politicians to pull them away from the two main parties.
 

MovingTarget

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The conventions are nothing but a dog and pony show anyway. Sure, you may hear some speeches that sound pretty, but nobody is really there to select the party candidate. I still watch, but only so that I see what the candidates/speaker actually say instead of the various pundit regurgitations afterwards
 

Hayabusa Rider

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hardly matters if they show up. After all it's just all show and everythings been decided.
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
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In the days before cable and DVR/VCRs (yes, there was such a time) I took my wife out to the movies to see Tess of The Dubervilles. I expected maybe a half dozen patrons, the theater was packed. I asked around, apparently one of the conventions was on TV.

They should use them at Gitmo, ala Clockwork Orange.

I don't think there has been a meaningful convention, for either party, since the Dems in 1968.
 

cybrsage

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Nov 17, 2011
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Something that made furious about the last RNConvention was when they invited Lieberman but banned Dr. Paul.

I had not heard of this before (the banning), I did a search, but recent news of the delegate fiasco fills the search engines. Can you link me to read more about it?
 

nextJin

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I had not heard of this before (the banning), I did a search, but recent news of the delegate fiasco fills the search engines. Can you link me to read more about it?

He was banned from speaking, not from attending iirc. He staged his Rally for the Republic event on the other side of the city which funny enough was not covered at all by MSM.

Rally4Rep.jpg
 
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Anarchist420

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I had not heard of this before (the banning), I did a search, but recent news of the delegate fiasco fills the search engines. Can you link me to read more about it?
McAnus was downright hostile to Dr. Paul (coming up to him and calling Dr. Paul a Democrat to his face after he took the nomination), so he didn't come. The fact that he was banned from speaking (despite him beating Romney in delegates in 2008) was pretty much an implication that he would be unwelcome.
 
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