Lightning threat forces Obama to change convention plans

[onehandle]

Source: CBS

(CBS News) CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Democrats are significantly downsizing the final night of their national convention, moving the events -- including President Obama's acceptance speech -- from Bank of America Stadium to the Time Warner Cable Arena because of threats of thunder and lightning.

Mr. Obama was slated to accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night in the open-air football stadium before a crowd of more than 60,000. The basketball and hockey arena, however, seats just around 20,000.

The Obama campaign said this week that they would keep the events in the stadium through rain but that it would move to the arena if lightning posed safety threats. Rain has hit the Charlotte area every day since Saturday, with remnants of Hurricane Isaac drenching the area Tuesday.

The effects of Isaac curtailed the Republican National Convention a week earlier in Tampa, prompting the GOP to cancel the first day of their convention.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57506378-503544/lightning-threat-forces-obama-to-change-convention-plans/

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That sucks.

[fugop]

1. Bummer

I hope they find somewhere to host the other 40,000 so they can at least watch the acceptance speech together!

[barbtries]

2. that does.

that's 40,000 totally bummed out people too.

[VWolf]

3. Better safe than sorry

Besides, the noise level and intimacy is greater indoors.

[SaveAmerica]

30. I'm really disappointed but want them to be safe (Obamas and Bidens)

It started storming about the same time on Monday when James Taylor was playing during the labor day first day event of convention and I was really concerned about his safety. He wanted to play on.

[bayareaboy]

4. Now how did the ...

KOCH Brothers do that?

[derby378]

5. Some jackweasel on FOX News: "Can't the Democrats afford a Farmer's Almanac?"

This was shortly before he was reminded of the GOP holding their convention in Tampa during hurricane season, when an uninvited guest named Isaac altered their plans.

[Iliyah]

13. GOPpers have amnesia, nor live in reality.

Of course we are going to hear "GAWD" hates Dems. These are some angry hateful people. Anywho, I can't wait!

[nanabugg]

6. I like the idea of insider better anyway. Just magnifies the enthusiasm. nt

[Iwillnevergiveup]

7. Yes

Barack can always do his victory speech in November in a huge outdoor venue like last time.

[drm604]

8. You know what the talking point will be on this?

Obama couldn't fill a 60,000 seat stadium and they didn't want the camera showing empty seats. The lightning is just an excuse.

That's nonsense of course, but that will probably be the right-wing talking point.

[onehandle]

9. Right-Wing examiner.com is ahead of the curve on this...

Avoiding 'historic' embarrassment: Dems move Obama’s speech to smaller venue

http://www.examiner.com/article/avoiding-historic-embarrassment-dems-move-obama-s-speech-to-smaller-venue

[snappyturtle]

22. Here's another from Rush (the empty airbag):

http://www.kvor.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ (scroll down half page and click read transcript)

snip~

They're continuing to call it "Panther Stadium." It's not "Panther Stadium." The Democrats had buses for students all across North Carolina, and even members of black churches in neighboring South Carolina have been arranged. They're having to bus people in there to fill up the 74,000-seat stadium, and I don't think they're anywhere near it. They're obviously nowhere near it. So now they're going to move it inside (that's the latest), and use "severe weather" as their explanation.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have a headline. I have a headline if anybody wants to use it on Thursday night. If they move the speech, if they move Thursday night's proceedings from outdoors to indoors, the headline is: You Didn't Fill That! And then show a picture of Panther Stadium/Bank of America Stadium. You Didn't Fill That! We might even use it ourselves at RushLimbaugh.com.

[SaveAmerica]

31. I still call it Panther Stadium and I am white and was not going to be bused in

BIG MOUTH RUSH!! How do you counter stupid? You really can't!!

[BlueStreak]

10. It is probably true. Look at the radar.

There is a bit of weather floating that way, but it doesn't look particularly heavy.

[drm604]

15. Exhibit A.

[SaveAmerica]

32. Nice try, we have had pop-up storms since Monday and they've been in the 3-6 pm time frame

[fugop]

11. Hell, that talking point was out there before the move!

The GOP has been putting this idea out there for days now, in the hopes that it would rain. They're still pissed that Obama is popular, so they start the whisper campaign (which isn't really a whisper) that should the event be moved, it must be because people don't like Obama anymore and won't go see him speak. What a freakin' crock. Just because their candidate can't draw more than a couple thousand people to listen to him (although they'd apparently show up to see Invisible Obama), they have to run down our guy.

It's ludicrous.

That's OK though. It's tough to hide Obama's popularity when you see how much more passionate the speakers and the attendees are than those that snoozed their way through last week's disaster of a convention. They're running down the president because it's their only hope.

Good luck with that, GOP.

[highplainsdem]

16. Already is, on Drudge, who linked to a snarky Daily Mail article.

[Javaman]

17. You win.

GOP questions if Obama speech moved because of problems filling seats
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/05/gop-questions-if-obama-speech-moved-because-of-problems-filling-seats/

[fugop]

18. Don't ever bet against the GOP being a bunch of sour-grapes whiners

They can't help themselves. Innuendo and rumors - it's all they've got t run on.

[SaveAmerica]

29. That's what they said on news in Charlotte within minutes of announcing venue change

Newscaster reported the change then a few minutes later showed the quote that Obama didn't have enough people to fill the stadium.

[TrollBuster9090]

12. Predictably, FOX is reporting that they're moving it inside because they can't get enough people to

fill the stadium. Jerks.

[Roy Rolling]

20. By that logic...

The Republicans must've really had an enormous enthusiasm problem. They cancelled a whole day of their convention for lack of enthusiasm.

[snappyturtle]

23. Good point! nt

[mwooldri]

14. Hate to say this, but if they want to use the stadium...

... they're going to have to pay extremely close attention to the weather.

Hurricane Isaac or not, the typical Summer evening weather in NC is usually bloody hot in the day, with a strong likelihood of thunderstorms and heavy downpours happening at a moments notice.

So far, the chance for thunderstorms are 40% here in Greensboro. I hope those weather bands track north of Charlotte... we're happy to have the rain and thunderstorms rather than Charlotte at this time.

[tomm2thumbs]

19. wondering if the current storms have had lightning.... if not, might be premature prediction

weather stats show there have been, but wondering if anyone heard in reality if any lightning or thunderstorms were there?

[fugop]

21. Eh ...

Talking Points Memo already has a story up about Dems "scoffing" at this bs. People will believe what they want to believe, so what can you do? Still, the Dems have answered this and now they should just mock the GOP for their usual whining about fake rumors.

[Jennicut]

24. It has rained every day in Charlotte since Saturday. This was not unexpected.

You can't put people out in a stadium with a threat of lightening. Repubs would be howling about that too. You will never escape the stupid attacks from the GOP, it just needs to be ignored or debunked.

[valerief]

25. Can't the military "move" the storm somewhere else? nt

[Hawaii Hiker]

26. How about waiting til early afternoon Thurs to make decision

It's still little far out to get an accurate forecast is it not,

[onehandle]

27. There are a lot of logistics to rearrange. The balloon drop alone may not happen.

Not enough time to install it in the alternative location.

[fugop]

28. Impossible

This is the president of the United States speaking in an open air stadium. With 65,000 people on hand. Who have to go through security. They can't just wait and decide tomorrow morning to move the whole thing. And they certainly can't wait until they get started at 5 o'clock only to have thunder and/or lightning at 5:30 or 6 and then say, "Oh well. We tried. Let's just move everybody to the indoor arena! We'll just speed them through a half-assed security check so we can get this thing back up and running in five!"

The decision had to be made today to get everything ironed out. I don't get why people seem to think this is like moving a soccer game or sitting through a rain delay at a baseball game. The idea that they could shift this kind of thing at the last minute is crazy.

[jberryhill]

33. +1

So many complicated systems run relatively smoothly that people in general are unaware of how many hamsters have to keep running furiously in the basement to spin those wheels in order to provide that appearance of smoothness.

[Aeroette]

34. I'm so bummed.

I was going to be one of the 60,000 in the stadium. I can personally say I'm sure they had enough people coming to fill that stadium. My mom and I got one of the last batch of tickets. They had to put people on a waiting list in case they got more in. They didn't get any more though. It was going to be packed, I'm sure.

[progressivebydesign]

35. Wish they had the extra $$ to put the extra 40k who had tix, into another venue nearby..

you know, have the speech beamed in live to another venue, as well?? That would squelch the jerks from claiming it was low turn out.. which it wasn't the tix were all spoken for.

[B2G]

37. There is no venue that will hold that many

Especially on such short notice.

Choosing an open air forum in the south in September is just as bad as selecting a hurricane prone area. As we can all now see.

[progressivebydesign]

36. Weather for Charlotte, tomorrow...

http://www.weather.com/weather/tomorrow/Charlotte+NC+USNC0121:1:US

as of this moment, showing 86 and lightning/thunderstorms starting in the afternoon. Unless the weather channel is part of the conspiracy...

I know that the Dems and repubs like to do their conventions for political reasons, but you know.. they COULD do them on the West Coast, ya know. We don't have thunderstorms and hurricanes in August/September.

[MrSlayer]

38. Egg on face.

I hate this. It looks bad. As if they wouldn't be able to fill the place so they punked out. It doesn't matter if that is true or not because that's the way it'll be spun.

[SkyDaddy7]

39. It won't be so bad if it actually rains

But regardless if the Obama campaign risked the lives of 60K+ just to get the shots of the crowd going crazy for Obama then they would get attacked for that as well!!

[onehandle]

40. They ticketed 65k and had 19k on a waiting list.

But yes, the worst hacks (Faux) will spin it otherwise.