Posted on 08/22/2012 2:30:08 AM PDT by Libloather
Dems prepare to go behind enemy lines at GOP convention in Tampa
By Mike Lillis - 08/21/12 01:40 PM ET
Don't call it sabotage, but as Mitt Romney and the Republicans are taking over Tampa for next week's GOP convention, a sizable crew of Democrats will be there as well, working furiously behind enemy lines in an effort to muffle the GOP message.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is launching the Democrats' counter attack on Tuesday with a Tampa-based press conference slamming Romney and the Republicans for their opposition to abortion rights — an issue churning intense interest this week in the wake of Rep. Todd Akin's (R-Mo.) claim that victims of "legitimate rape" are immune to pregnancy.
The official Democratic counter-offensive, however, will launch this weekend, when Wasserman Schultz inaugurates the Democrats' "rapid-response war room," a home base said to be "just a short walk" from the heart of the Republican convention in downtown Tampa.
The Democrats are keeping most of the details about their push-back strategy close to the vest. But the DNC said Tuesday that Wasserman Schultz will be joined by "leading campaign and party surrogates" who will focus their attacks on Romney's tenure as a successful private-equity executive, as well as the tax, immigration and women's health policies Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), have championed on the campaign trail.
In a surprise move, the Obama campaign announced Monday that Vice President Biden will be in Tampa during the GOP convention as well, holding a rally for supporters of the president's reelection campaign. It's uncommon for the parties' top leaders to appear near a rival's convention, traditionally using the time to raise funds and to rest.
"While the [Republicans] will focus on burnishing Romney’s biography as a so-called Mr. Fix It, the [Democrats'] response will be to highlight how his work in the private sector and as [Massachusetts] Governor was a disaster for the middle class," DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said Tuesday in an email. "[T]he policies Romney is espousing on the campaign trail follow the same pattern: raising taxes on middle class families and ending Medicare as we know it while slashing taxes for himself and other millionaires and billionaires."
The Democrats will also go after the other GOP convention speakers, Woodhouse added, charging that "many" of them "represent the most extreme and intolerant voices of their party."
The idea of infiltrating the other party's convention city is neither new nor unique to the Democrats. Because the conventions are staggered, the media glare tends to favor one party at a time during convention season — a dynamic largely allowing each side to spend a week trumpeting its own strengths and messages without much push-back from dissenting voices.
Romney and the Republicans, of course, will own the headlines in Tampa, just like the Democrats will be the stars of the convention coverage from Charlotte, N.C., a week later. The parties historically get a bump in the polls during these self-celebrating events.
The behind-the-lines war rooms are designed to give the opposing party an on-the-ground opportunity to rain on the host party's parade.
Toward that end, the DNC will host daily press events in Tampa "illustrating how out of step Mitt Romney and his policies are with seniors, students veterans and middle class families," Woodhouse said.
There's another more practical reason that both parties want a physical presence at the opponent's convention: not much happens at these events, lending operatives on both sides of the aisle the opportunity to pitch ideas to the swarms of story-hungry reporters who converge on them.
Indeed, for all the hoopla and headlines surrounding the official nominating parties — and for all the A-list figures lining up to attend — the conventions have lost much of the substance and mystery that once defined the four-year events. Barring an enormous plot twist in the next few days, Romney and President Obama are all but certain to walk away the presidential nominees. The rest is largely fluff.
"The conventions aren't the easiest places to find stories, quite honestly," said one Democratic leadership aide, "so [an opposition war room] gives you on-site people to respond to things."
Not that the Republicans won't have their own chance to play spoiler. Obama and the Democrats will be gathering in Charlotte during the first week of September, and GOP operatives have been busy preparing a push-back strategy of their own.
It’ll be a party! It seems the New Black Panthers have been invited too. I would look for a False Flag event designed to tip the election in Obama’s favor.
Gee, G Gordon Liddy is retired, it be a shame if they had no electricity, no Net Access, and all their fancy 4G phones didn’t work. JUST KIDDING !!!!
NBC/CBS/ABC/PBS/CNN/MSNBC/NYT/LAT/Wapo: “Oh, Paul Ryan is making a speech? Sorry, can't cover it cuz some Democrat was pepper sprayed by a cop she was beating with a baseball bat—police brutality is a much bigger story dontcha know!”
We ought to send Ryan to Charlotte--just the welcoming crowd at the airport would be twice that of the entire Dem convention and the Leftist MSM would be destroyed if they don't cover THAT!
As President Obama would say.. he would not want his girls punished with a baby... to the dems a baby is a punishment..wonder if DWS will dwell on that?
Can’t two play this game?
How about a gigantic Tea Party in NC during the DNC?
Boy, they really do appear to be desperate. I wonder why.
I cannot understand how the GOP lets them get away with the crap they get away with. The Akin story, for instance. Akin was not very savvy for using the terms he used, or for letting the other side suck him into debating a point that he could have brushed aside, but the GOP response should have included pointing out that the extremists on the abortion issue are all on the left - including Obama who voted to maintain partial birth abortion. Then, if I were the GOP, I would have surrogates (untraceable to Mitt or any specific candidate) out showing pictures of what partial birth abortion looks like - and saying “who are the extremists”? Then, I would point out the incredible abortion rate in the black community, and ask why promoting the continuation of the killing of black babies isn't racism.
Hit them back. Hit them hard. Speak over them. Make them pay a price for their antics. If someone knows they can keep punching at you, without fear that they are going to get punched back, they will not hesitate to keep throwing punches.
Sure would be a shame if they ran into some Occupy protestors.
Wonder how they will work the convention and a hurricane? Should be interesting. It least it will keep the protestors miserable.
We could have done all those things if Akin had quietly taken himself out of the picture so that the Dems would be deprived of their sound bite. The GOP adopted a good anti-abortion plank this year, but Akin’s behavior (and the fact that even now he can’t seem to shut up) has completely obscured this and moved it outside of rational discussion.
What I want to know is how a sitting VP is being allowed to use taxpayer dollars for what is unabashedly a campaign event. So far as I know, we’re paying for his travel, security and other expenses.
It's uncommon for the American sheeple to elect a regime this crass, thuggish and with no respect for traditional courtesies.
I suggested a while back that NC TEA Party commenorate the 1898 Wilmington coup d’etat by the RATs. The Republican city government was run out of town as were the blacks.
Let them play the race card. We should respond by labeling child abusers and child molesters. Drilling a hole in a baby’s skull and sucking out its brain is the ultimate child abuse. Not content with that, they burn the baby.
I work through out the Tampa Bay area as a salesrep on the road.I am there 3 out of 5 days a week. I made an observation about 2 weeks ago. Told my husband about it at the time. Seems I have seen quite a few cars on 275 that had union bumper stickes and signs around their license plates and of course Obama/Biden 2012 stickers on their cars. The people driving usually had people in their cars and one car in particular caught my attention as it was from Georgia. I drove for about 5 miles to a clients business and this car exited where I did but he went left I went right. He went right for the Hood. I went towards the businesses.
These guys are here to whip it up and anyone that is attentive can see it. Way too much union stuff here in a Right to Work state. Another thing is Graffitti is showing up heavier than ususal.
I am invited to hear the Keynote speech at Convention and to be quite honest I was happy to go, now not so much. Afraid of the craziness down there. It is going to be a freak show.
I am thinking that Vice President Dufus is going to Tampa armed with a teleprompter speech that has one controversial statement in it that the media will jump on and spend two days going over, thus avoiding the highlights of the Convention. Of course, the Administration will be able to pass it off as “Old Crazy Joe” is at it again.
” but Akin’s behavior (and the fact that even now he can’t seem to shut up) has completely obscured this and moved it outside of rational discussion.”
I know that are a lot of people who like him, but the bottom line is that he has put himself above the importance of the taking back the country from the left. That is inexcusable to me, but is entirely consistent with the narcissism that draws many, if not most, to careers in politics.
I know a Tampa cop and EMT. They tell me people are arming up big time and have no problem with it since the ones doing the arming up are law-abiding. Most people outside the ‘hoods are aware of what is going on and they aren’t Obama/union fans.
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