Michelle Obama charms the DNC

Michelle Obama reminded everyone why she is President Obama’s best weapon and most powerful asset in his campaign for reelection. With a combination of charm and passion, she not only made people remember why they voted for him four years ago but gave a forceful case for why he should get the job again.

And like Ann Romney did for her husband, Republican challenger Mitt Romney, at last week’s Republican National Convention, the First Lady used her Democratic National Convention to personalize the president, reminding people of their roots and devoted family life with two daughters.

And she didn’t let Ann Romney have the monopoly on talking about love: “Today I love my husband even more than I did four years ago... I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as ‘us’ and ‘them’ - he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above... he knows that we all love our country...”

Those words were a reminder of the reach-across-the-aisle attitude President Obama had four years ago, an attitude that many welcomed, that some called naive and an attitude that has not been reciprocated in the divisive uber partisan environment in Washington.

She pointed out in particular that Obama has focused on issues that have aided women like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and noted that the president knows that “women are more than capable of making their own choices.”

The speech had convention-goers on their feet and the First Lady herself moved to near tears. It was a showcase for Michelle Obama, and a rousing culmination of the first day of speeches at the DNC.

Posted by Fannie Flono

DNC Quick Take: Anthony Foxx's speech

Charlotte's mayor had a straightforward but challenging job moments ago at the Democratic National Convention:

Introduce himself. Introduce his city. Remind everyone in the audience and beyond why Democrats are here this week.

The challenging part? Tie it all together - in about three and a half minutes.

But sometimes the most powerful messages are the briefest. Anthony Foxx, draped by video image of uptown, put together six elegant paragraphs to kick off the Democratic National Convention in earnest. He tied his story with his city's story, recalling how black families and white families decided together nearly a half century ago to break down barriers that had divided their children.

"I was one of those children," he said, and he described how that opportunity took him from West Charlotte High to Davidson College to here, on a stage as the mayor of the DNC's host city.

The values he learned along the way, he said, are values that Obama shares. "All Americans," he said, "should have a fair shot to go as far as their talents take them."

It was a simple and strong message - a reminder of the principle behind the party. It was a good moment for Charlotte - and its mayor.

Peter St. Onge

Michelle Obama previews her DNC speech

First Lady Michelle Obama gave us a preview of her speech in a conference call a little while ago with few female writers including associate editor Fannie Flono. From her comments this afternoon, she will not only be making the case for her husband's reelection but directly targeting women voters pointing out the stark differences in how the Democrats and Republicans are treating women's issues. Some of the differences have been highlighted over the last few weeks with controversial comments from some Republicans about women's reproductive issues and use of words such as "legitimate rape" which met a storm of women's outrage.

Obama was joined for the conference call by Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter, who said "there was no one fighting harder for our daughters and the next generation of women than the president and Mrs. Obama."

Here's some of what Michelle Obama said: "Tonight's a big night for me and for the Democratic Party. I'm looking forward to reminding people across the country about the qualities and experiences that make my husband the man and the president he is today. And I've had an upclose look at just how hard Barack has worked to move this country forward, to rescue our economy and rebuild our middle-class and give our children the opportunities they deserve. So I'm really excited about talking to everyone about giving him a chance to finish the job that we elected him to do four years ago."

Obama went on to focus attention where Ann Romney did in her speech last week at the Republican National Convention where her husband Mitt Romney received the GOP presidential nomination - on women. Michelle Obama said it was important for women to know what is at stake in this election: This time of year when school's starting and children are returning to class puts things into perspective. Many of the issues being debated in this election, she said, will affect our children not just now but in the future, and the futures of their own children.

The First Lady talked about health care. She said the president knows that women need the full range of health care services and that they need to make their own choices about health care. "He's fought so hard for historic health care reform and because of that fight insurance companies now have to cover basic preventative care, things like contraception, mammograms, prenatal care - at no extra cost. Insurance companies now can't charge us extra for those services just because we're women. And mothers can understand that our kids can now stay on our insurance until they're 26 years old."

Michelle Obama called those and other health care reform changes in the still controversial Affordable Care Act "huge steps for women all across the country." And she cautioned that those changes would endangered if her husband wasn't reelected. "That's the choice," she said.

What else is at stake? Women's workplace issues. The First Lady pointed to the president's signing of the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act as indication of his belief that women should be paid the same as men for the same work. So many women are breadwinners for their families so women's success is key to the family's success in this economy, she noted.

Issues like equal pay and health care aren't just women's issues, they're family issues that are important to entire communities, she said.

She says the president is "working to have an economy where hard work pays off, and where everyone plays by the same rules and all of our daughters and our sons have a fair shot at success in this country." That's what president Obama has been fighting for and that's what he'll continue to fight for if he's elected for the next four years, she said.

"I'm going to be doing everything I can to make sure everyone, especially our mothers and daughters, sisters and our best friends, neighbors understand what's at stake in November because while we've come a long way in Barack's first term, it is critical that we keep moving forward. There is so much that is on the line for us as women, not just for the next four years but for decades to come," she said.

Posted by Fannie Flono

Republicans on Obama's 'I': Not incomplete, but incompetent

In the southern corner of uptown, sandwiched between a rally for Planned Parenthood and protest to free Bradley Manning, Republicans gleefully trashed Barack Obama on the economy again Tuesday afternoon.

It's a daily event in the basement of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, much like the regular news conferences of Democratic officials in Tampa last week. But unlike then, the opposition party has thus far taken hold of the convention's messaging nationally - and with no Democrats on stage yet, the GOP message is getting more play than any of the protests and rallies that have dotted the streets and ballrooms of uptown.

At the Hall of Fame, the theme was similar to Monday: Are you better off now than four years ago? But speakers also teed off today on Obama's answer over the weekend to a Colorado TV reporter's question on the economy.

From USA Today:

Reporter Dianne Derby asked Obama, "your party says you inherited a bad situation -- you've had three and a half years to fix it -- what grade would you give yourself so far for doing that?"

Replied Obama: "You know I would say incomplete. But what I would say is the steps that we have taken in saving the auto industry, in making sure that college is more affordable and investing in clean energy and science and technology and research, those are all the things that we are going to need to grow over the long term."

Republicans dutifully, and colorfully, pounced. Said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley: "I have a 10 year old and a 14 year old. If they came home with an incomplete, I'd know they failed."

Mitt Romney surrogate John Sununu, unvarnished as always, followed: "He thought the 'I' was for incomplete. The 'I' was for 'incompetent'.

Sununu noted that he once taught at Tufts University near Boston, and he remembered students who took an incomplete. "It was the students who failed to meet their expectations," he said. "It was the students who failed to do what they were required to do."

The economy has been - and will to continue to be - a difficult issue for Democrats this week. They've argued, statistically and otherwise, that America is better off now than it was when George Bush left office. But they'll need to find the seam of acknowledging the difficulties Americans still face while emphasizing what they see as a steady improvement.

Their case begins in a few hours, when the national lens turns toward the stage at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Peter St. Onge

Getting votes by peering at your grocery receipt

What's your favorite ice cream? Really? That's Obama's too! Vote for him!

OK, that may be a stretch, but only a little bit. Political campaigns are getting ever savvier about targeting their messages down to an individual level. So it won't be long before you start seeing ads along that ice cream line.

Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Clinton administration, said this morning that political campaigns are constantly looking for ways to get past the "Tivo problem." Thanks to technology, the days of people sitting through several minutes of TV commercials are gone.

When a TV ad comes on these days, "people dive on the remote like it's a live hand grenade," Lehane said at a Politico breakfast hosted by Politico's Mike Allen and co-sponsored by the Observer.

So campaigns are increasingly buying 15-second spots, and even 10-second spots, rather than 30-second ads. That gives them a chance of reaching viewers' short attention span. More importantly, those shorter spots are the last ones before a show returns from a commercial break, so they're more likely to be seen.

Other techniques Lehane mentioned:

• Buy more ads on live programming, such as sports, which people are more likely to watch live.


• Target ads to individuals based on their preferences, culled from things like frequent shopper programs. "The amount of data you can get and use to target people is pretty significant," Lehane said.


• With early voting so prevalent, campaigns can see who has already voted, ask them poll questions and use their answers to help shape how they target voters in the final weeks of the campaign.

Another speaker at today's Politico breakfast also talked about targeting voters. Guy Cecil, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, talked about the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Colorado. In a tight race between Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Ken Buck, Democrats didn't go after just any vote. They went after Hispanics, and they especially targeted independent women living in the suburbs of Denver and the suburbs of Colorado Springs.

That meant TV ads heavy on Bennet's pro-choice stance. Ads about the deficit, a hot topic in many 2010 races, were scarce. Bennet won by just over 1 percentage point.

Cecil, who knows the gritty details of politics in every state in the nation, was asked about Obama's chances in North Carolina this year. He said it will be extremely close and added: "North Carolina and Virginia are permanent battlegrounds because of the population changes in those states."

-- Taylor Batten

DNC Day 1: The Good and Bad (and Ugly)

It was a light first day of the Democratic National Convention, but some participants certainly had good days and bad days:

The Good

Republicans: It's a good day any time you control the media message when your opposition is holding a convention. On Monday, that message was a question straight out of 1980: Are you better off than you were four years ago?

Administration and campaign officials stumbled over the question on Sunday talk shows, so on Monday, Republicans rode the theme hard. Paul Ryan channeled his inner Ronald Reagan in Greenville, N.C., asking The Question and helpfully supplying some iffy but effective supporting statistics.

By the end of the day, Democrats had found their voice and declared that yes, America was better off than when George Bush left office. "General Motors is alive and Bin Laden is dead," vice president Joe Biden said.

Still, it's a difficult question for Democrats to navigate, and Republicans will surely keep asking it today. Will convention speakers feel compelled to respond?

CarolinaFest (Part 1): The day started out wonderfully on Tryon Street. A strong lineup of musical performances. A diverse crowd enjoying the sun and spectacle. People-watchers looking (in vain, mostly) for a celeb who might have wandered out.

And also, no trouble to speak of, save some unsurprising traffic issues in uptown. All in all, the kind of festive day organizers had hoped for, until ...

The Bad

CarolinaFest (Part 2): So it rained. On a hot, humid afternoon. In early September. This is not a surprise, but it sent spectators scattering before they could fully enjoy the biggest of the musical performances, including North Carolina's James Taylor.

It was a reminder that while the Carolinas in September can be glorious, there are some perils in scheduling outdoor events. (Like, um, acceptance speeches?)

The Ugly

Protesters: Another non-surprise. We didn't expect protesters would be satisfied with a meek, police-choreographed march through uptown Sunday. On Monday, demonstrators freelanced a bit, sneaking into a Labor Day parade during the day, then blocking uptown traffic on a march to Marshall Park at night.

As happened Sunday, police showed the kind of flexibility that has kept Charlotte calm thus far, letting the protesters have their say without any real trouble. The ugly? We could've done without the obscene signs that some demonstrators brought to the family-friendly Labor Day parade.

“Arrogance is disrespectful,” one protester said. “ ‘F------’ is not.” Or, maybe, both are.

Peter St. Onge

Really, let the empty chair die...

This is not a good idea:

Conservative media outlets hope to intrude on some of the messaging of the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte with National Empty Chair Day.

The twitter riff is a show of support for the so-awkward speech delivered by Clint Eastwood, who spoke to an imaginary Barack Obama in an empty chair on the night Mitt Romney accepted the GOP nomination for president. You remember the speech - the one that sucked the momentum from the room after several speakers had delivered moving testimonials to Romney. It's been thoroughly criticized by pundits and politicos, left and right.

@invisibleobama, by the way, has 67,740 followers as of Monday.

So, National Empty Chair Day? The idea is to show how President Barack Obama has been an absent leader when the nation needed him to lead America toward recovery. Fair enough argument to make, but not this way. A pretty basic political rule: Don't remind people of things that make them laugh at your candidate or party. Think Mike Dukakis and the tank.

Peter St. Onge

Jesse Jackson: Beware schemes to hurt minority voters

Republicans are launching "devious schemes" to disenfranchise black voters and others, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said today.

As the Democratic National Convention rolls into town, Jackson initiated a meeting with the Observer editorial board to trumpet this message: The civil rights era launched the New South into what it is today, and voters need to be alert to threats that would erase those gains.

"Schemes of voter purging and voter suppression have never stopped," Jackson said. He called overzealous voter ID laws and other measures "an attempt to take us backwards." Asked whether he thinks the public has adequately stood up to stop such efforts, Jackson said: "Sometimes people catch on slow. People have not caught on to just how devious these schemes are."

Jackson, a Greenville, S.C., native, credited the civil rights era and especially the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with opening doors across the South. The falling of "the cotton curtain," not conservative policies, cleared the way for better education and more opportunities for minorities, black migration back to the South and diversification of the South's economy, he said.

He argued that President Obama has managed to foster slow but steady growth despite obstruction from congressional Republicans. He blamed the banking industry for much of the country's woes. "You rob a bank, you go to jail. A bank robs you, they get a bonus," Jackson said.

Jackson, a presidential candidate in 1984, was quiet and subdued, a distinct contrast from the firebrand speeches he's known for. Asked how he sees his role in national politics today, Jackson said: "I always felt more comfortable on the third rail. ... Raising uncomfortable questions."



-- Taylor Batten

Is N.C. a tossup state? Well.....

A panel of political experts agreed today that while North Carolina is a technically a toss up state in the 2012 election, it's actually sort of maybe not.

The panel was at the O to discuss the latest Elon University poll, which has Republican Mitt Romney leading 47-43 in North Carolina. The poll, conducted last week, also had former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory with a wide lead, 52-37, over Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton in the race for N.C. governor.

(A Public Policy Polling survey released Monday morning has Obama and Romney tied at 48 and McCrory leading Dalton 45-39.)

The Elon panel of experts featured Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, CNN analyst David Gergen, NBC News deputy political editor Domenico Montanaro, McClatchy White House correspondent Anita Kumar, Raleigh News & Observer political writer Rob Christensen and the O's editorial page editor, Taylor Batten.

Some background: Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008, in large part due to winning 35 percent of white voters, which Batten noted is historically the threshold for black candidates to win in N.C. At least part of that 35 percent for Obama came from a steady influx of voters moving into North Carolina from other places, said Cook.

"North Carolina is a transitional state," said Cook. "It was a Southern state. It's in the process of becoming a Mid-Atlantic state."

Still, the panelists said, while North Carolina is technically a tossup state, it's more realistically leaning toward Romney based on indicators that include high unemployment and the women's vote. The latter is much closer in the Elon poll, where women favored Obama by a point, than in national polls that show the president with a wider margin.

The strategy for Obama, then, in North Carolina? "Make the Romney camp spend money," said Montanaro. "When they stop spending money here, we'll stop saying it's a swing state."

As for the national election, the panelists were unified in that Republicans missed an opportunity at their convention in Tampa last week. Instead of using the prime time Thursday spot to show the nation speakers who offered moving testimonials to Romney, the key slot was given to Clint Eastwood's bizarre empty-chair speech.

Also, said Gergen, the Romney campaign may have spent too much energy trying to warm voters up to their candidate. "They did not deal well with substance," Gergen said, and that could give Democrats an opening to attack what Romney stands for.

The missteps are emblematic of a campaign that should be leading, given economic indicators, but isn't.

Said Cook: "On almost every dimension, the Obama campaign is crisper, sharper more thought-through."

Peter St. Onge