RSS Feed for This PostCurrent Article

Empty Seats at “Magical” Obama/Oprah Event

By SusanUnPC on February 4, 2008 at 9:57 PM in Barack Obama, Oprah

emptyseats_bensmith-sm.jpg

An old pal just sent me this image of today’s Obama event at UCLA in Los Angeles the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Politico’s Ben Smith adds:

You won’t see this in most of the news photography, because photographers are packed into press risers, opposite whatever backdrop — a crowd, a flag — the campaign prefers.

But while Obama has held some very large rallies in some very small cities — 14,000 in Boise! — there have also been quite a few empty seats at some of the bigger venues.

Now Smith has another photo up that shows even more empty seats:

2241194610_335a8c3749.jpg

Granted, UCLA has a big stadium. But …

And I have to add this: If this had happened at a Hillary Clinton event, you can bet that these images would be all over the news. But Obama gets a pass.

  • simon

    We just caught the end of Clinton’s TV event, and a question asked of her was how she would handle the draught situation GA is currently experiencing…

    First thought that popped into our heads, around here, was how would Obama handle this?

    The answer, being of course, hope for rain…

    • don

      She’s still live online. Only the TV part ended.

      • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

        YES! Go to http://www.hillaryclinton.com — I’m heading there right now.

        • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

          ALSO: MyDD is live-blogging her town hall meeting. (Yes, they hvae done the same for Obama and for Edwards. They cover all the candidates, even the Republican debates!)

          I really like that site. They have almost all the latest political news, and they’re very fair. They also cover the House and Senate races.

          • simon

            I agree, they seem more tolerant of the vociferous give and take that can occur, encouraging more passionate, detailed debate.

            Grown up debate, they’re not as fast to censor when something appears threatening to their views.

          • kenoshaMarge

            Mydd is always fair and so is talkleft.

            • simon

              I’ll have to check out talkleft.

              It isnt always about fairness, sometimes people are banned or censored in the way Cheney would go after terrorists, say, because he’s so fearful, any disagreement is a threat, so he goes for what is most obvious, the blanket paranoid approach, defeating himself. Most site administrators cant recognize a real troll.

              Someone who disagrees is not a troll, say, someone who constantly steers the site toward hopelessness, or paranoia, or specious reasoning most likely is…Trolls have a very hard time explaining their reasoning.

              They post more to affect mood, adversely,their simple minded army techniques, showing. Some site admins cant tell the difference between an honest colorful discussion, and manipulation, the worst of the trolls are left to romp, uninhibited.

              Sort of like the AIDS virus, some site administrators kill the immune system, unknowlingly, leaving the virus free to control.

              • simon

                And when you speak of controlling propaganda while maintaining equality, our founding fathers nailed it.

                All you need to know about winning the propaganda wars is in the Constitution.

                Of course law should always address the new thechnologies.

        • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

          Actually, the specific link is:
          http://townhall.hillaryclinton.com/

          (This is crass, but I’d kill for her jacket.)

          • simon

            She had on a yellow Chanel suit earlier, and it was classy, her look, I thought.

            I saw her about two years ago being interviewed in Iraq, with John McCain.

            Obviously, because of the conditions, she had little make-up on, her hair just natural.

            I thought she had never looked better, as if she were able to step out from behind the mask.

            • laughable clintonites

              ha! y’all are hilarious and delusional

              • chris

                You went through all the old posts…just to write this drivel?

                Finished your daily rounds of trolling yet?

  • http://www.evergreenpolitics.com shoephone

    It looks like another fall
    Your friends, they don’t seem to help at all
    When you’re feeling kind of cold and small
    Just look up your Rainy Day Man…

    • simon

      Everybody must get stoned.

  • don

    My first thought was,

    Empty seats for an empty suit.

    • sally

      Sorry to rain all over the gloating, but you might want to note–

      –approximately 6,500 people showed up for the rally. Hardly an empty stadium…

      –umm…Obama was not there. This was billed as a rally with Michelle Obama, Oprah, et al. and Maria Shriver was a surprise guest. His rallies have repeatedly drawn five-figure crowds–are you really somehow suggesting that his popularity isn’t all that his campaign claims? The facts are stacked against you. I was planning to go to the rally in Boston last night but got a call from a friend who was already there–apparently the line stretched over a mile, all the way across a bridge back into downtown Boston.

      Why not stick to actual issues or facts as opposed to this kind of indulgent silliness?

      • Sha

        Just like it was here in Tucson for Hillary on Saturday – her plane was late and people hung on for several hours.

  • ghost2

    Hope for rain!!

    Thanks for the laugh. That line kicks ass!

    • simon

      With Obama’s obtuse campaigning, they’ll be coming a mile a minute…

      So much material…

  • Mr.Murder

    UCLA enrollment proportions are way below national average for minorities, or so I’m told by others.

    • simon

      That’s because they did away with affirmative action admits as part of the republican ” no racism here, whites are people, too” BS.

      A travesty, an absolute tragedy all those voices unable to access UCLA, or the better public universities due to that stupid “reverse racism, gee, don’t white folks have it hard, too?” crap.

      Every voice should be promoted, if minorities, those who start with less social or economic advantage, arent given a fair shot, the poverty cycle is never broken, minorities are under represented in the level of government where they are needed, Washington, and the greater cultural problems are never resolved.

      And like chooses like, Harvard will choose ivy, and not look to Cal State, Long Beach, when appointing a policy aid to examine welfare for single mothers.

      So we get flawed policy from affluent people unable to really empathize with the people they are creating policy for, the poor and discriminated against…

      Diversity is good, makes us better, stronger as a nation.

      And it was the republican mandate to divide and conquer, attacking affirmative action, the marriage amendment, et al and Obama embraces this tactic, it’s despicable.

      • Fred C. Dobbs

        Affirmative Action was thought up by the Nixon White House to break the hold that white-dominated construction craft unions had on a segment of Philadelphia politics.

        • TeakWoodKite

          segment of Philadelphia politics.

          I’d be correct in inferring this was not done with the well being minorities in mind?

          • Fred C. Dobbs

            We’d have to ask Tricky Dick, Haldeman or Erlichman to know for sure. I think they’re all taking dirt naps now.

            But the general idea was to make Democratic union bosses look like racists. Which they may well have been.

            Sort of like ending slavery in the South. Might not, at the time, been the biggest single reason for the Civil War. But History is always written by the Winners.

            • simon

              It still worked to the benefit of us all, though, a blessing in disguise. Nixon was also responsible for title 9.

              Democrats aren’t perfect, in fact many are like their Republican counterparts.

              But the best of the democrats, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr, Franklin Roosevlet, even Bill Clinton, that’s who I admire, for their open minded commitment to the American people, for their incisive, brilliant intellects.

              It’s good politics, and it’s great leadership, a united, heterogeneous country is a strong country.

              • kenoshaMarge

                Sometimes fate intervenes and the bad guys accidently do something good. It’s not like what they intended but when good things happen for people we all win.

        • Tess

          It was President Lyndon Johnson who signed the executive order that is our affirmative action policy.

      • Mr.Murder

        Thanks for follow-up. Others made me aware the school failed to reflect a balance in proportion of its enrollment.

        Could have been the result of a lawsuit, etc.

        For me, the immigration policy is a threat to our security by failing to bring more legal immigrants and visits here.

        Many medical students could or would love to train here, other young professionals, and of course within the diplomatic ranks we need a broad base of prospects to call upon in foreign service. How can we recruit the people needed for security, people fluent in the customs and ways of other lands, if we deny people from common means the ability to come here and have opportunities of betterment?

        Security is developed by shared goal and celebrated difference.

  • Silver

    At the Taylor Marsh blog, there’s a clip of Michelle Obama being interviewed on Good Morning America. When asked if she would support Hillary in November if she was the Democratic nominee, Michelle was uncertain that she would. So much for Obama’s “unifying theme”. Since Bill and Hillary have both pledged that they would stand behind whoever was the nominee, this seems like immature behavior coming from someone who would like to be our next First Lady.

    • simon

      I was wondering if this was an issue, her role as first lady.

    • kenoshaMarge

      So was her ridiculous comment about Obama being “stinky”. I knew then that if he was the candidate that would be the clip heard round the world. Michelle Obama may very well be a smart lady but that was a stupid thing to say.

      • Taters

        Well Obama is an ass kisser… so stinky might be appropriate.
        How about Michelle making a reference to Bill Clinton’s straying by her get your own house in order comment to Hillary? Classy,huh?
        Or did she mean the deal with Rezko and their mansion?

  • RalphB

    Just watched Hillary’s TownHall online. She’s really magnificent. She give me hope, not Obambi!

  • Fred C. Dobbs

    You know, I’ve been in fist fights that had a bigger turnout…

  • TeakWoodKite

    Contrast that with the decider having a captive audience in milatary uniform. If the next president treats our military as props for as many photo ops as this bastard has…errrr.

  • Mr.Murder

    There were two AUMFs.

    The first one was voted 98-0, two not present. Bush had authority to act on anyone he determined to be a terrorist, with a very low threshold for justification.

    Technically, Bush could have used that on his thin evidence and low bar for AUMF authorization.

    The problem was that staging an actual invasion took more money, had to be done before the act itself. Had the Congress not reviewed the Iraq resolution, he’d have moved without the pieces in place to obtain an initial invasion objective of toppling Saddam.

    Then he’b be blaming the Dems and still be able to most likely insert the supposed WMD pretext.

    The CIA caught his pretext at the border, falsely marked NGO relief items were determined to have been WMD and precursors, and were redirected at the last checkpoint to Kuwait. The likelihood this had could have even been done with an ability to properly stage, gauge,and monitor our own traffic in the region would have been scant.

    Back to the original item, either you with or against him going was not even a consideration, Bush was already gone. Were you going to do it with the military’s staging points and logistical support in least favorable terms, or give the second AUMF so it could be done on some kind of tactically secure framework?

    The first AUMF gave him authority if he so chose, the second one was essentially a political lever.

    Saddam offered to resign and live in exile.

    That’s what the Resolution won, and Bush fumbled it. Probably because Rumsfeld was bored with Afghanistan, he said the country lacked the big targets his military was ready to take down.

    • simon

      I remember asking myself about Rumsfeld’s true state of mind, ie, could he be suffering from early Alzheimer’s? From what I have read, there seemed to have been so many warning signs.

      It’s scary to think critically strategic decisions in regard to US position were made based upon the judgement of a man unable to properly reason.

      I guess we will find out after they leave office.

  • kenoshaMarge

    Media and Left Blogostan will not show empty seats because that would be against the Obama Rules. I.E., “thou must not speak negatively of the Obama.”

    http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/1/27/72417/8822

    That said, I have nothing against or for Oprah. I don’t watch her show, I find her largess programs particularly arrogant and condescending. It seems to me that kind of thing is saying, “look I’m rich and you’re not and I will toss you a few crumbs from the table of this incredibly wealthy person.” She earned her wealth, I know, it just doesn’t sit well with me when she’s acting like the Chatelaine of the Castle.

    I don’t need her to tell me which books to read and I sure as hell don’t think she’s qualified to tell anyone how to vote. Maybe it’s just me being a cranky old lady again. But I didn’t like being condescended to when I was young either.

  • Cee

    Too bad soldiers weren’t home to attend.

    Military Donors Back Ron Paul & Obama
    February 04, 2008 3:19 PM

    The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign cash, looks at the 2007 money-raising and finds the following:

    In 2007, the 2008 presidential candidates raised $582.5 million and spent $481.2 million.

    In the 4th quarter of 2007, individuals in the Army, Navy and Air Force made those branches of the armed services the No. 13, No. 18 and No. 21, contributing industries, respectively. War opponent Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, received the most from donors in the military, collecting at least $212,000 from them. Another war opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, was second with about $94,000.

    Soldiers love Ron and Barack, and lobbyists love Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, the No. 1 recipient of lobbyist cash, receiving $823,000 in 2007 from the lobbying industry, which gave about $2.7 million overall.

    • kenoshaMarge

      According to the information I located as of April 2007, about 1,426,700 people are on active duty in the military with an additional 1,458,500 people in the seven reserve components. If that is so, then the fact that $94,000 was donated to Barak Obama by the military would seem to say that they don’t love him all that much. Given the number of personel and all.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States

  • Michelle Matthews

    Thanks so much for the pictures!!!The biased news coverage does not show the American public these views. The camera angles make it look like this arena was packed. I am so sick of the obvious bias that the news channels are showing obsessing over Obama and negatively attacking Hillary Clinton. On some sites such as CNN one cannot make a pro-Hillary stmt because it will not make it past the moderator. What ever happened to freedom of speech? Does this not apply to the voters?

  • colbertocrat

    Regarding the Oprah, Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and Michelle Obama rally, I’m wondering how the endorsement of 3 female millionaires (don’t know Mrs. Obama’s net worth) resonates with middle class Democrats. I find the Oprah/Kennedy family endorsements completely fatuous as we face down what will probably be a minimum of a 2 year economic downturn. One can only hope that the the realists outnumber the cool kids.

    • mostest

      That is exactly right. Maybe the Obama thinking was that the middle class democrats are in aweful of those rich woman and would follower their lead. This is not unlike the whole theme of the Obama Nation.

  • Pingback: My Media Musings « The Krile Files

  • Independent

    Hillary Clinton could not win the Presidency without Obama on the ticket. Better get used to it.