CHARLOTTE — President Obama traveled here to this convention city on Wednesday as his Democratic predecessor, former President Bill Clinton, was set to officially nominate him for a second term with a primetime address.
Democrats, basking in the glow of a powerful opening night of political speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and a diverse assembly of rising stars, hoped to build on their momentum on the second night of their convention. Liberal leaders were set to take the stage, including Elizabeth Warren, the Senate nominee from Massachusetts, women’s health advocate Sandra Fluke and other activists.
With Obama arriving in Charlotte aboard Air Force One, convention organizers announced he would give his acceptance speech Thursday night indoors at the Time Warner Cable Arena, ditching plans to stage the evening before some 74,000 people at the open-air Bank of America stadium. Officials cited severe weather in announcing the last-minute shift.
Republicans charged that Democrats moved the event to a smaller venue because there was not enough enthusiasm about the president to fill the football stadium.
But Obama campaign officials rejected that characterization, adding that the president was disappointed he would not be able to replicate the image of his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where he addressed some 84,000 supporters from the 50-yard line at Denver’s Invesco Field.
“We’re all disappointed, because we had 65,000 ticket holders plus 19,000 people who were on the waiting list, excited to hear him deliver his speech tomorrow night,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “This isn’t a call we wanted to make.”
Psaki said that in the event of a thunderstorm, officials would have had to evacuate the stadium, and convention organizers did not want to take that risk. “This is not a [Carolina] Panthers game, as you may know,” she said. “It’s a national special security event.”
Democrats anticipated a rousing program on Wednesday night, when Clinton will be the evening’s headliner. Clinton is one of the nation’s most popular political figures, with an approval rating of 69 percent in the latest Gallup survey, and Democrats have calculated he will be an effective voice to convince independent voters to give Obama another four years.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as Obama’s first White House chief of staff and also worked in the Clinton White House, said Clinton could draw parallels in his speech between Obama’s struggles governing with a Republican-led House and the difficulties he faced in his own presidency during the mid 1990s.
“The very things that we’re talking about today are the battles that happened before, and if you want to see the economic growth we had before, you’ve got to continue to fight and invest in the things that actually are most productive for the economy,” Emanuel told a breakfast meeting of reporters and editors from The Washington Post and Bloomberg News.
In addition to Clinton, Wednesday night’s program features several of the Democratic Party’s rising women stars. Warren is set to speak in the coveted 10 p.m. hour, while California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris will address delegates in the 9 p.m. hour.
The night will end with the traditional roll call of the states that culminates in President Obama’s official nomination.
Right from the start, Democrats tried to inject some star power into the convention hall as Gabby Douglas, 16, fresh off her gold-medal winning performance at the London Olympics, led the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
Meanwhile, Republican nominee Mitt Romney has stayed off the campaign trail all week for three days of intensive debate preparations with his advisers in Vermont. On Wednesday, Romney made a brief public appearance at a pizza restaurant in nearby West Lebanon, N.H., where he told reporters he had read the text of speeches in Charlotte on Tuesday night.
“You’ve heard no one stand up and say that people are better off today than they were four years ago,” Romney said. “They really can’t say that, they can’t say it in all honesty..
Democrats, basking in the glow of a powerful opening night of political speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and a diverse assembly of rising stars, hoped to build on their momentum on the second night of their convention. Liberal leaders were set to take the stage, including Elizabeth Warren, the Senate nominee from Massachusetts, women’s health advocate Sandra Fluke and other activists.
With Obama arriving in Charlotte aboard Air Force One, convention organizers announced he would give his acceptance speech Thursday night indoors at the Time Warner Cable Arena, ditching plans to stage the evening before some 74,000 people at the open-air Bank of America stadium. Officials cited severe weather in announcing the last-minute shift.
Republicans charged that Democrats moved the event to a smaller venue because there was not enough enthusiasm about the president to fill the football stadium.
But Obama campaign officials rejected that characterization, adding that the president was disappointed he would not be able to replicate the image of his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where he addressed some 84,000 supporters from the 50-yard line at Denver’s Invesco Field.
“We’re all disappointed, because we had 65,000 ticket holders plus 19,000 people who were on the waiting list, excited to hear him deliver his speech tomorrow night,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “This isn’t a call we wanted to make.”
Psaki said that in the event of a thunderstorm, officials would have had to evacuate the stadium, and convention organizers did not want to take that risk. “This is not a [Carolina] Panthers game, as you may know,” she said. “It’s a national special security event.”
Democrats anticipated a rousing program on Wednesday night, when Clinton will be the evening’s headliner. Clinton is one of the nation’s most popular political figures, with an approval rating of 69 percent in the latest Gallup survey, and Democrats have calculated he will be an effective voice to convince independent voters to give Obama another four years.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as Obama’s first White House chief of staff and also worked in the Clinton White House, said Clinton could draw parallels in his speech between Obama’s struggles governing with a Republican-led House and the difficulties he faced in his own presidency during the mid 1990s.
“The very things that we’re talking about today are the battles that happened before, and if you want to see the economic growth we had before, you’ve got to continue to fight and invest in the things that actually are most productive for the economy,” Emanuel told a breakfast meeting of reporters and editors from The Washington Post and Bloomberg News.
In addition to Clinton, Wednesday night’s program features several of the Democratic Party’s rising women stars. Warren is set to speak in the coveted 10 p.m. hour, while California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris will address delegates in the 9 p.m. hour.
The night will end with the traditional roll call of the states that culminates in President Obama’s official nomination.
Right from the start, Democrats tried to inject some star power into the convention hall as Gabby Douglas, 16, fresh off her gold-medal winning performance at the London Olympics, led the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
Meanwhile, Republican nominee Mitt Romney has stayed off the campaign trail all week for three days of intensive debate preparations with his advisers in Vermont. On Wednesday, Romney made a brief public appearance at a pizza restaurant in nearby West Lebanon, N.H., where he told reporters he had read the text of speeches in Charlotte on Tuesday night.
“You’ve heard no one stand up and say that people are better off today than they were four years ago,” Romney said. “They really can’t say that, they can’t say it in all honesty..