Obama-nation: Complete DNC Takeover Angers Democrat Leaders

Original Link: http://donedems.com/2008/07/17/obama-nation-complete-dnc-takeover-angers-democrat-leaders/

Obama is officially using the DNC simply as an apparatus to secure his election, and people are obviously upset.

Politico reports:

Among the grievances described by Democratic leadership insiders:

• Until a mailing that went out in the past few days, Obama had done little fundraising for Democratic candidates since signing off on e-mailed fundraising appeals for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee immediately after securing the Democratic nomination.

• Obama has sometimes appeared in members’ districts with no advance notice to lawmakers, resulting in lost opportunities for those Democrats to score points by appearing alongside their party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

• The Obama campaign has not, until very recently, coordinated a daily message with congressional Democrats, leaving Democratic members in the lurch when they’re asked to comment on the constant back and forth between Obama and John McCain — as they were when Obama said earlier this month that he would “continue to refine” his Iraq policies after meeting with commanders on the ground there.

• Coordination between the Obama campaign and the House and Senate leadership is so weak that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who will chair the Democrats’ convention in August — didn’t know of Obama’s decision to move his final-night acceptance speech from the Pepsi Center to Invesco Field until the campaign announced it on a conference call with reporters.

In short, Obama is in it for Obama. He has effectively kidnapped the DNC, transported it across state lines to Chicago, and is holding it hostage. Again, we told you so. Was it not completely obvious that this was going to happen, or are we PUMAs just clairvoyant?

The danger of ignoring down-ticket Dems was warned against and realized upon the first news of the DNC’s move to Chicago. Politico reported:

But the move to Chicago also inspired some concern among Democrats who would prefer the party play a larger, independent function, and not merely serve the nominee.

Obama’s DNC takeover extends beyond Chicago and Washington. His campaign is also expected to take control of the elements of state Democratic Party operations that are financed by the DNC as part of Dean’s “50 State Strategy,” according to state and national party officials. Those officials said the campaign would likely absorb the party staffers only in battleground states, and state officials were still absorbing plans Thursday.

“The DNC has responsibility beyond the presidential campaign—to senators and governors and members of the House of Representatives as well as state parties–and when you dismantle the DNC and move it to the same location of the presidential campaign headquarters, there could be an implication there that the move is being made to capture the DNC wholly for the presidential campaign,” said Donald Fowler, who served as DNC chairman during the 1996 presidential election.

Recalling the friction with the 1996 Clinton campaign over allocating more national party resources to the presidential race, he said, “I would be leery of the DNC forsaking their interest in all of these offices to focus exclusively on the president campaign.”

Further, when Obama flipped on public financing, it should have been clear that most of his fundraising efforts would be for himself. In addition, months back, he told supporters to only donate to him and to forego donating to independent Democrat groups.

Now, with the DNC Convention fund raising committee in dire straights, Obama has decided to stroke his ego with a 76,000 seat stadium without even running it by Democrat “leaders” first. Certainly audacious…not very financially responsible…

Senator Obama has one mission: get elected at all cost. Down-ticket Democrats, conventional rules and decorum, nor Party rules are of any concern to him. There is a surprising amount of room under the Flip-Flop Express, and we PUMAs don’t mind the company.