Obama to hold mass rally for acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium

[Brittain33]

Giving a big speech isn't.  Doing it in a stadium looks like it is elitist.  It plays to chanting crowd of which most people in the US are not part.  It's spectacle, Nurembergesque, but not reaching to the average voter.

Obama (and McCain) has to sit down at the kitchen table with the voter.

Did you see McCain's cozy speech in New Orleans with a crowd of a few hundred? It diminished him, and not in a good "jus folks" way.

[Brittain33]

I'd be even more pissed off if our nominee (either this year or in the future) decided to do this. Should we move the inauguration to Giants Stadium while we're at it? Or how about the State of the Union in the Superdome? Being at the actual convention makes it something. This is just makes it seem like even more of a typical rally.

If George W. Bush had done this in 2004--and he could have--Republicans would have been cheering and feeling like winners, and with good reason.

[Brittain33]

I don't know how many times I've done this now but I will say it again - I have certainly criticized my party and candidates I support time and time again. I don't care what other people would have done. I don't even care that other Republicans don't like this thing Obama is doing.

Ok... personally I wouldn't have criticized the Republicans then or Obama now, and I don't think it would have made Bush look bad or elitist. He seems to have done well from cultivating an image of an adored leader addressing the masses, not elitist.

[Brittain33]

SNIP

I don't remember Obama declaring whole cities and states to be "Obama Country."

Lighten up. 

[Brittain33]

Bush might be cocky as well, but he seemed like he was always running for President to help America.

Nah, it's always been about working out his issues with his father and taking his mother's strong direction.

[Brittain33]

Every campaign does that.

"Bush Country" in 2000 was a big phenomenon and Bush said it himself, all the time. It was part of his standard speech.

I agree with you that it's not a big deal; it's other people who seem to think there's some substance to their complaints about this kind of thing.

[Brittain33]

I don't get that at all. Like I said, every campaign puts up signs like that. I don't get how Bush 2000 was a phenomenon because of it.

It wasn't just signs. He said it, too. Shouted it to the masses. Al Gore couldn't get away with saying "Michigan is Gore Country" with the frequency and zest that Bush proclaimed it with. Bush, with an ego so massive and enormous it blocked out the sun, loved to inform people at his rallies that they were living in a state that HE owned, and their residence in that state reflected their devotion to the name of BUSH.

Gaze on the sight of an ego so large it crosses state borders to give Hillsdale College a playful smack on the ass:

[Brittain33]

This sounds so assinine. Mentioning that a state is "______ Country" isn't arrogance; it's a "tatic" that has been used for quite some time. I apologize if Gore couldn't get away with it because he had the charisma of a 90 year old man. That doesn't make the man that used it "arrogant."

The great hero BUSH loved himself and his name deeply and with great passion. Why else would he have given speeches to crowds of people who liked him and supported him, if not because of his swollen ego? Why would he have allowed his followers to create t-shirts with his graven image, if not as testimony to his devotion to himself and his own self-love? These are signs. Read this thread and learn.

[Brittain33]

Except, we've started to see some examples of it happening.  We've seen Obama's numbers, after huge press, either hold or decline slightly.  It's not good.

How can you attribute it to one image which doesn't even seem to be a problem for Obama? McCain has hit him on gas prices and not being ready to lead--would you argue those were non-factors compared to footage of people shouting his name?

It just doesn't make sense to me.