It may well be that only political junkies are glued to the television channels showing the political conventions these days but they remain a valuable medium for the parties to reach out to potential voters. That’s why the choices made by the organizers in terms of speakers and topics are significant in that they signal which demographic groups the parties are most interested in reaching.
Last week, the Republicans devoted some time to playing to their base but the main focus was on convincing wavering Democrats and independents that President Obama’s economic failures were a reason to turn him out of office. Their sloganeering centered on the president’s denigrating individual initiative. They mentioned their opposition to ObamaCare but most of their convention rhetoric wasn’t aimed at conservatives or Tea Partiers but at those who voted for the president four years ago.
But the first night of the Democratic National Convention has been strictly about rallying the liberal base.
For hours, Democratic speakers have been speaking about abortion, ObamaCare and lauding big government initiatives. Democratic delegates have loved it.
But does the Obama campaign really think offering a speaking position to the most extreme advocates of abortion on demand, including late term and partial birth procedures appeals to the majority of Americans who do not wish to make all abortions illegal but support reasonable restrictions?
Do Democrats really think bragging about the passage of ObamaCare, a vast expansion of government power that restricted religious freedom and which is deeply unpopular with most Americans, as something they think will persuade undecided voters to back the president?
Many have questioned whether Mitt Romney can appeal to the political center and whether his campaign thinks they can win only by mobilizing the Republican base. But the GOP answered these challenges by devoting much of their infomercial to trying to persuade the center to think twice about four more years of Obama. But Democrats appear to believe they don’t need to appeal to anyone but those on the left.
Agreed. Strickland and Deval Patrick really went at the table pounding, rabble rousing, almost screaming approach. Red meat for the converted.
I disliked (intensely) the left's cheap certainty of President Bush's motivation for Iraq. It was completely irrational. And it caused me to check my own tendency to judge a man by what I believe to be his motivation. n nI'm not really an Independent, though I could vote for a Democrat with no problem at all. I'm not a Republican but I am a conservative because I think what makes for a successful individual, family, village, town, county, state and nation is discipline. n nI won't watch another minute of this convention. It "touches the void" and makes me despair for the Country. n nWhat could possess women to rally, ad alta voce, to the cause of the destruction of their offspring? It's one thing to find yourself in dire circumstances and commit such a sin but it's quite another to raise this as a good, at a convention. To teach young women that pregnancy is a squabble with their ovaries that they can win, by hook or by crook. It's evil.
"But Democrats appear to believe they don’t need to appeal to anyone but those on the left." Appear to believe they don't need to appeal to – or, perhaps, they realize they HAVE to appeal to them. Big difference, and it is why I don't think the election is as close as polls seem to indicate. The Republicans are confident in their base, the Democrats not so much.
While the Democrat's abortion position is most extreme, it is one widely supporting by its Jewish supporters (despite being contrary to 5000 years of Jewish values and ethics). And it also explains why despite turning their back on Israel and opening up to Muslims the vast majority of Jews will pull the lever for Obama this November. What better proof that American Jews have become another lost tribe?
the Dems are not even pandering to older voters – I do resent being labelled an "oldie" in a throwaway line when the speaker was focussed on the college vote. nThe GOP's SoCons need to stop obsessing about partial birth abortion, and stop smearing Margaret Sanger as part of their plan to delegitimize Planned Parenthood. It is a meme just as offensive as the palestinian narrative. nfrom a pro-choice independent who really does have a problem with the nastiness online of those who think abortion is the #1 issue. They are just as facsist as the Dems. n
When Obama says that Republican positions are extreme, that kind of throws me because they aren't — by which I mean that general opinion polls for years and years have shown the public generally supports the moderate to conservative positions (even like a majority disapproves of abortion while, of note, a majority also doesn't want it banned either). I wondered how Obama could think the commonly held opinions in America are extreme (or if he really thought that and why would he say it if he didn't, when it makes him sound dumb)?? n nAnd yet, here they are at the convention acting as if the extreme positions are the majority consensus?!? Is it possible the Democrat political leaders are so insulated from the rest of America that the old Pauline Kael quote is really how they think (she couldn't believe Nixon had won, since no one she knew had voted for him)?