PRESS RELEASE
'What If They Gave a Convention,
and No One Came?'
April 29, 2012 (EIRNS)—A leading California Democrat confirmed a pattern noted in Texas and Ohio, by asking the question, "What if they gave a convention, and no one came?" He was referring to the difficulty Democratic Party officials are having in stirring up enthusiasm for President Obama's re-election campaign, adding that there are many Congressional Districts which have, at present, no one signing up to be potential delegates pledged for Obama to the national convention in Charlotte, N.C.
This Democrat said that he, and several others who have been "superdelegates" in the past, will not attend this year's convention. He added that the disaffection with Obama is widespread, with "progressives" angry about wars and police state measures, labor angry at the "free hand for Wall Street, but the back-of-the-hand for workers," Hispanics at the failure to address immigration, etc. He admitted that, in reality, even those who wanted Obama to succeed have given up hope. "I don't think that they [party activists —HS] would agree with your Hitler mustache poster," he said, "But I think a lot fewer people will put up a fight over it."
In contrast, he said that in 2008, there was such a volume of applications that many regulars and activists were told not to even bother to try. Further, he added that all activity in the party is local, i.e., focused on local races, and not the Presidential race, with one notable exception, which is fundraising. Obama is hauling in huge amounts of money from Hollywood and from Silicon Valley. The latter spigot was opened wide by Obama's personal role in passing the misnamed JOBS bill, which will create few, if any jobs, but freed speculators (those engaged in venture capital investments, hedge funds, private equity funds, etc.) to engage in activities which will create a new bubble in initial public offerings (IPOs, which were at the heart of the late 1990s "Dot-com" bubble).
In Texas, many of the Senate District Caucuses held last weekend had few attendees, with several in the Houston area with 25 people or fewer. In 2008, these caucuses were overflowing, as Soros' money, through ACORN and various social networking fronts, pulled in record attendance, including large numbers of participants who attended caucuses illegally, as Obama operatives did not allow checks to see if participants were registered voters in the districts where they attended. One former party official said that the low attendance is based on little real support for Obama, and the absence of Soros' money this year. He said that Texas Democrats are expecting a disaster, as Obama is unpopular, and the Democrats have no real vote-getter running for the U.S. Senate seat.
Another Texas Democratic Party state official discounted the line in the media about Hispanic support for Obama. He said there is no love for Romney, but none for Obama, either. He confirmed an earlier report that local party operations are running at bare bones level, as the only money available is that coming from the national Obama campaign. For local party offices to get funds, they have to demonstrate extensive operations for Obama — therefore, given the lack of enthusiasm for Obama, there is only a trickle of funds coming into Texas.
One county office working hard to get funds is the Fort Bend County Democrats, who are running an aggressive anti-Kesha campaign. They do not have an office at present, but are hoping to demonstrate, by their aggressive, nasty campaign against Kesha, that they should get some funds!
In Ohio, there is a report of a quiet rebellion in Columbus and Cleveland among African-American officials, which has been building since the 2010 Democratic election losses. While the ostensible reason given is that Obama never visits black neighborhoods in his many visits to the state, our contact said the real reason is that he has done nothing to aid those who have been hurt by the 2007-08 crash. In Ohio, this includes a large percentage of those who used to work in manufacturing, and public employees, who have seen significant job losses in city, county, and state government.
