It was just announced that the city of Charlotte, N.C. has been selected to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
The news is a blow to St. Louis, which was considered Charlotte’s top competition to be chosen as the convention site, and Mayor Francis Slay had expressed “cautious optimism” as recently as last week that the city’s effort to lure it would be successful.
At the end of the day, choosing a convention site is a political decision made, in this case, at the White House level. Presumably this is part of a Southern strategy for Obama, who surprised nearly everyone by winning North Carolina in 2008.
Still, one has to wonder if it a lack of enthusiasm in Missouri helped carry the day for North Carolina. St. Louis was, after all, seriously considered to be a finalist for the site, and Charlotte certainly didn’t dwarf it in terms of physical convention capabilities.
The Hill, a respected Washington insider publication, speculated that Sen. Claire McCaskill would be better off in her reelection bid if Missouri was not chosen. Four years ago, the Democratic National Convention was held in Denver, and one of its beneficiaries was the party’s nominee for Senate in Colorado; Mark Udall, who would go on to win the Senate seat, was spotlighted at the convention at a stadium speech that reportedly included 30,000 of his potential constituents. It certainly didn’t hurt him. In 2012, Sen. Claire McCaskill faces what is expected to be a tough Senate race, while there is no Senate seat up in North Carolina, where the convention is being held.
If, as many suspect, Missouri Democrats were privately lukewarm about the notion of having the convention in St. Louis, was it prudent, conservative thinking? Or another opportunity lost?
It would be hard to imagine someone like quasi-Democrat Gov. Jay Nixon wanting to be seen anywhere near President Barack Obama as part of his good-ol-boy, right-leaning reelection campaign.
Missouri was one of the few swing states lost by Obama in 2008, but he did lose the state by less than 4,000 votes in his 50–49 defeat, so it’s not as if he is radioactive to everyone in the state.
There’s no doubt that it was an article of faith among Missouri Democrats that Obama was to be avoided politically at all costs during the last campaign, but it certainly didn’t prove a successful strategy as the party was thoroughly decimated—statewide and in the legislature—in the election.
Obviously, the midterm elections of 2010 presented a very different challenge than the excitement of the 2008 presidential campaign, but looking ahead, one has to wonder if the Democrats really believe that cowering is the best defense when state Republicans attack Obama.
Perhaps the most telling current example is the state party’s own website, where there is literally no reference to the existence of this Obama fellow. The state party’s counterpart in North Carolina, by contrast, had prominently featured Obama’s State of the Union speech (as did the Minnesota state party site, another contender for the convention).
In defeat, Mayor Francis Slay attributed Charlotte’s victory to “electoral politics.” That may be. But in the wake of Obama’s State of the Union speech—which had drawn approval ratings of up to 91 percent in some national polls—Slay himself didn’t bother to respond to it with so much as “good speech” on his website.
What did the mayor do? He ran his own poll asking what people thought of the speech. Nixon, of course, ignored the speech altogether (or at least managed to generate zero public news on the subject).
On the very week that the White House was mulling over its decision about where to locate its 2012 national convention, the mayor of one of the finalist cities reacted to the president’s triumphant speech by running a poll?
That, of course, had nothing to do with the choice of Charlotte as the 2012 convention site. But it is an interesting metaphor with respect to Obama “fever” in Missouri, especially considering that Slay—who tried hard to win the convention—is a relatively enthusiastic backer of the president.
Next up for 2012: Will Missouri’s Democratic party send a delegation to Charlotte, and if so, who will be willing to be seen there?
SLM co-owner Ray Hartmann is a panelist on KETC Channel 9’s Donnybrook, which airs Thursdays at 7 p.m.
