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September 07, 2012 04:34 PM UTC

And Now, The Real Campaign Can (Ha Ha) Begin

  • 30 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

The Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel wraps up after ably covering both party conventions:

In Tampa, Fla., last week, Republicans focused sharply on the message that Obama has failed to rescue the economy.

On Thursday’s closing night of the Democratic National Convention, Obama and his allies blasted out reasons why he should win another term – among them a successful auto bailout, the death of Osama bin Laden, increasing gay rights and reducing the country’s oil imports.

“Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known,” Obama said.

His speech was a mix of celebration of his accomplishments, criticism of his opponents and a plea for patience.

Yesterday’s final night of the Democratic National Convention also featured a speech from Jason Crow, an Iraq war veteran and Colorado resident–Hanel reports on Crow’s speech:

Crow fought in Iraq and supported Obama’s repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay and lesbian troops.

“It was wrong that men and women I served with could be told they weren’t good enough just because of their sexual orientation. Soldiers who I trusted with my life, and fought alongside with, could be discharged because of who they loved,” Crow said.

Although Colorado was quieter this week than four years ago when we played host to the DNC, President Obama returns next week for a campaign stop in the Denver area–details to be announced soon, along with the next inevitable Romney-Ryan campaign event. For the next 60 days, our state’s undecided voters are going to be courted like an oil billionaire’s widow. In a way, it’s kind of like a party convention and debate, every day on your front porch.

Which it basically has been for months. But now it’s “for real!”

A poll follows. Who’s got the post-convention momentum in Colorado?

Who had the more persuasive convention for Colorado swing voters?

View Results

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Comments

30 thoughts on “And Now, The Real Campaign Can (Ha Ha) Begin

  1. Ryan was in the state during the DNC, down in the Springs in fact.  CPR covered it, even.  Of course, few other people cared – the DNC was in full swing.

    We’re going to see a LOT of presidential and vice-presidential candidate visits this year.  Romney can’t afford to lose Colorado, and Obama doesn’t want to give him the chance to win it.

      1. I would like to (1) show up with a stuffed dog strapped to my roof for a Romney event and (2) show up as a fat “marathoner” with a gold medal to a Ryan event.

  2. I really think that the convention succeeded in activating and emboldening Dems not only in Colorado, but across the nation.  While the Dem Party has been touting their landmark GOTV campaign (just as they did in 2010), there has been a remarkably lack of enthusiasm from many corners of the grassroots.

    I think Bill Clinton changed that.

    The GOP is still struggling to get party folks to rally around Romney.  I honestly don’t think that all conservatives will vote for Romney because he is the default option.  Right now Romney is still fighting on two fronts, his conservative and moderate base as well as with independents.

    However, at the end of the day, Romney hasn’t done anything special but he’s in the thick of it.  Obama has his work cut out for him.    

      1. but there are fools everywhere and unfortunately they do get to vote. My belief is that anyone who votes for Rmoney/Ryan is a fool. But there were lots of fools in ’00 and ’04 or we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in

        1. A candidate’s religion might tell a voter something about a candidate’s values, no ?  

          In our system, I’m allowed to vote for someone because of his race; because I admire his record of failure and ability to avoid responsibility; or because of his boasts of having sex with many women (including some rapes) and smoking pot.  

          Those would be the main reasons our last 3 presidents won, by one analysis.    

          What’s so offensive about voting based on the candidate’s character ?  

          ______________________________

          Of course, from my perspective, this website is ALL ABOUT backing Obama because of the Humanist religious convictions of most of those who post here.  

          Disagree as you must, but I still suspect that you will vote based on the cultural mores, core beliefs and worldview that you share with most in this community, and that help you relate to the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”  

          Which of course is the Wiki definition of “religion.”  

          Salaam.

          1. I’ll agree with you that the needle on this website has swung towards the left, but to say it’s an Obama cheerleading site is off-target.

            But my posts kicking the shit out of the Republican’t party (as well as my criticisms about Federal inaction on Veteran suicide and other issues) are not based on “Humanist religious convictions” but critical thinking and factual analysis.

            To wit – taking care of our men and women who fought and bled for this nation has an imperative that is based on ethics and not metaphysics. But it’s also based on economics – do we really want to arm up the nation’s law enforcement to deal with a much more trained and pissed-off “Bonus Army?”

            I won’t vote for President Obama because some of my Buddhist beliefs intersect with his campaign platform, though the core idea of compassion helps in some cases.

            The main reason is that he has a documented plan to lead the nation for the next four years, while his opponent is basing his plan on the equivalent of “every millionaire gets a pony!”  

              1. You can’t wish away gravity or the color of the sun rising through the morning mist in a rainbow of colors that defy categorization.

                The human consciousness which is the custodian of the form is constructed to process multiple facts and find association and correlations which result in awareness and action.

                Rational decision making is no more a religion than the structure of the universe or the thing that animates all life forms.  If you want to include rational decision making in with the rest of “all that is” things then yeah it could be described as an eternal component of human consciousness for the duration of the species.

                No bets that this component of the universe will be passed on to the new mutant forms of life that will arise from our toxic waste.

          2. Atheism. Secular humanism.

            As a matter of fact, I’m looking to get tax exempt status by starting the Church of Secular Humanism. Then I want to participate in faith-based initiatives.

  3. From The Comic Observer

    http://thecoloradoobserver.com

    “Ryan is a brilliant man loaded with solutions … said El Paso County Treasurer Bob Balink.

    “Ryan and Romney are full of solutions,” said Balink…

    The crowd was ecstatic when Ryan strolled in to the hanger.

    “In the last 10 minutes of his speech, you just knew this is it. He’s the man we’ve been waiting for …” said Roy.

    (-emphasis Twitty)

    Another ‘article’ in the COO, in which Ryan demonstrates his disdain for the U.S. Constitution:

    http://thecoloradoobserver.com

    no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

    “To quote a prominent journalist from Wisconsin, ‘They were against God before they were for Him,'” [Ryan] said.

    1. Big shock.

      Must have been the last few thousand with the private resources to not need much police, fire, trash, street lighting.

      But, by god, they slashed big gummint spending.  

    2. pointing out an opponent’s apparent phoniness is an appeal to folks to not vote for him.  

      That’s not the same as challenging his qualifications to run.    

    3. They always make fun of Democrats for swooning over Barack Obama.

      He’s loaded with solutions all right… but to be more accurate it’s a semi-solid mass.

  4. I opened this diary to read how Obama answered all your doubts about the war in Afghanistan.

    Seemed like a pretty hot topic a week ago, with SSG Dan et al. excoriating R-Money for not mentioning that particular “campaign issue.”  

    Now, I have seen the YouTube of Obama jumping off the chopper in the first stick, and pulling the trigger to kill UBL,

    soft hands notwithstanding,

    but is that it ?  

    Is that his entire answer to the observation that he is still afraid of Bush’s Generals ?  

    1. Carter didn’t fail to fly all of the aircraft to Desert One, nor did he crash the RD-53Ds into the MC-130. Yet he’s blamed for the failure of the mission, even though it was the assault force commander who requested the abort, and not the President.

      Yet in a rare demonstration of ethics, he took full responsibility for the failure of Operation Eagle Claw, and shouldered all the blame.

      So, under similar circumstances, the boss gets to take some of the credit for ordering the mission, giving it all the resources it needed, and making the call to get that sumbitch when the best that “Bush’s Generals” (none of which are senior staff anymore) could offer was a 50% guess that OBL was in the compound.

    2. If your going to blame Obama for everything that happens while he’s president (including the mess he inherited), then allow him to claim credit for the successes – especially those stemming from his decisions.

      Logic still matters, right?

      1. I don’t think I’ve blamed this President for everything on his watch.  

        Mostly all a Prez can do, day to day, is pick good people.  There are some big decisions, and those fall on his shoulders, as well.  

        e.g., tough for any Prez to move the business cycle.  

        …….

        SSG Dan,

        I blame the failure of Eagle Claw on Marine and Navy leaders whose clamor for glory forced an interservice op better left to soldiers.  

        If the Army had called the shots, and the other services did what they do best – support the Army – it would have been a much simpler operation.  

        Heck, if the Navy had been in charge, and the Army left out, it probably would have worked.

        What didn’t work was too many cooks.  My classmate at the Prussian Military Academy, Von Clausewicz, had this idea about unity of command.  I think he’s on to something.  

        I think I’ve mentioned before that Carter is the Prez in my lifetime I admire most — an honest man.  

        So, CSA (Ray O) is not a senior leadership position ?  VCJCS (Winnifield ?)  CSAF (Schwartz ?) CMC (Amos ?) CNO (Greenert ?)

        Each of these got their 3rd & 4th stars under Bush, after a personal vetting by both Bush and Vader.  

        Oh, yeah.  Dempsey, CJCS, was Bush’s guy in Iraq for a while.  

        I happen to think one of these guys is good for the country, but the entire crew should have been swept out in January 2009 due to the massive institutional failure to give good advice to Bush.  How do I know ?

        Well, how many generals did Bush fire ?  

        1. ..I know that most of the promotion at EAR are pretty much “that is my guy” stuff and not so much dictated by political views at the WH.

          CSA is technically not a senior leadership position, but woe be unto you to anyone that ignores him.

          I can’t comment on the rest of the senior promotions, but they were chosen by Obama for some reason. He had no problem firing McSpook when he cross the line of dumbassery, and I suspect he chose who he did based on someone’s input. I know Shinseki has some tight connections still in the Pentagon, maybe he’s helping…

          Lastly, Bush didn’t have to fire too many Constellations that didn’t toe the line – lots of them had the courage of their convictions to quit. Shinseki was fired in a nice way, but it was still a firing.

  5. Romney got no bump out of his convention and I suspect the President won’t get much of one either. The fact is there aren’t a whole lot of undecided voters to convince at this point and how many of those few undecided voters were even watching these conventions?

    I have never questioned my support for President Obama and will no doubt vote for him again. And yet, even I am discouraged by this ridiculous and petty campaign season. I wouldn’t blame an undecided voter one minute for not wanting to watch these conventions after being completely bombarded with false and misleading campaign ads for months now. And both sides are guilty of this.

    I thought President Obama’s speech was excellent last night and I think we are absolutely better off than we were 4 years ago. That being said, I haven’t heard much from him about what his plan for the next 4 years is other than we are “moving forward” (which may be catchy but doesn’t really mean anything). And the only plans I’ve heard from Romney is how he’s going to undo everything President Obama has done in the last 4 years. I don’t see this as an instructive debate for any voter, let alone one who is still trying to gauge which candidate is better for this country.

    I fear our current campaign techniques fail to engage many voters and instead cause them to simply tune out the whole election process which is bad for down ticket races and for democracy in general.

    1. Maybe if you did some research you would see that an Obama win means Republicans can’t roll back the Affordable Care Act so he is doing everything he can including redefining Romney’s business credentials to make sure that the outsourcing and layoffs are also a part of the record.  Do you really think Romney would talk about how he invested in companies and pulled millions out of them through management fees which crippled the company.  Someone has to hold up the light even if it is unpleasant to do otherwise you end up getting Swiftboated and they lock in another four years of disaster.  I don’t resent the president for using negative ads.  It’s part of the process and nobody is going to change it in the next eight weeks.

      That said here are the positive things that he is proposing we do:

      Obama’s Plan to move America Forward

      Obama Website

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