Team Obama's convention game plan calls for stadium rally

Gridiron fans, move over.

The Barack Obama campaign hopes to turn the last evening of the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 28 into a giant rally of voters in a football stadium.

The unusual move, confirmed by two sources, would be an echo of John F. Kennedy’s acceptance speech in 1960. Kennedy delivered his address before thousands of supporters at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Obama’s big moment also would fall on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

The first three days of this year’s convention are still scheduled to be held at downtown Denver’s Pepsi Center, a basketball and hockey arena. But the Pepsi Center holds no more than about 19,000 people, and the Obama campaign thinks it can assemble a much bigger crowd for the acceptance speech — making a more compelling television picture.

Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos pro football team, can seat more than 76,000.

Officials involved in planning the event said the challenge of filling the stadium didn’t seem to be much of a worry for the Obamians, who attracted huge crowds during their primary campaign this spring. More worrisome, they said, were issues of logistics and security for all the Democratic dignitaries at the convention — plus the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms in the open-air stadium.

The football stadium plan appears to be what was in the works when word surfaced earlier this week that the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee were kicking around the idea of shortening the party convention to three days instead of four.

Obama campaign officials didn’t respond to requests for confirmation. Shannon Gilson, a spokeswoman for the campaign, simply told the Denver Post via e-mail: “We think Thursday night in Denver will be very special.”

-- Doyle McManus

Comments

[Lou]

For the McSame supporters I have a couple of links to share with you. People believe in Obama:

THIS IS A POWERFUL VIDEO I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU. PLEASE SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND HAVE THEM SHARE IT WITH OTHERS.

Zoe Kravitz is the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet.

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Tens of thousands of people attended Unite for Change meetings in all 50 states. Watch the video and get involved in your community.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/UFCvideo/

[Alessandro Machi]

Maybe they will schedule a football game first and then keep everybody there with free beer.

Kind of a similar approach to what they did in Oregon when they booked a band before Obama spoke and then claimed everyone who was there was an Obama supporter.

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http://www.WALLSTREETCHANGE.com

[I'm so there!]

LA would be well represented at Invesco!

[Gaias Child]

Bama can definitely fill up that stadium. That's just about a thousand more people who stood up to hear him in Oregon, counting the ones on the river in boats. He's got that Kennedy thing going on. We are going to have some Clinton drama first and of course here come the Republican attack ads. Mostly those things work on people who have the same vibration as the ad I think.

[Mainer1776]

This sounds all very surreal to me. Obama hero worship which is totally unwarranted given his inexperience and true lack of accomplishment.

Will there be torches? Instead of "Sieg" ... "HEIL"... will we hear... "Yes" ... "WE CAN"?

The rise of Obama can truly be compared to the rise of Hitler.

[warsteiner]

76,000 unionized savants charmed by cobra barack

[Kalamere]

The Obama Unity Campaign is frighteningly similar to the
the Unity Campaign of Hitler and the Nazi Party. When the state controls everything it is not "Unity" it is totalitarianism. The idolizing crowds and "rallies" echo a dismal and disastrous past.

[Mainer1776]

Hitler: "Sieg!" Unruly crowd of sycophantic supporters: HEIL!

Obama: "Yes!" Unruly crowd of sycophantic supporters: "WE CAN!"

Will Michael Moore film this ... and use it like Leni Riefenstahl ... in a new "Triumph of the Will"?

[dan]

I live in NC and this is just plain stupid. Do you want LA, NY, etc and all the other leftist states much larger than NC determining who becomes your president? They came up with the electorial college for a reason.

[Robin]

I'm all for Obama but am very disappointed in his recent stance on FISA and other issues. He is correct in saying that we all won't always agree on everything and the differences between him and McCain are vast. I was expecting more. I didn't want the vote to come to the lesser of two evils. I know that I would never vote for McCain. Obama can always count on my vote. But I am afraid of all of those people who were on the fence. As he said on his blog this morning, this could be a deal-breaker. Let's hope he can still fill a football stadium come August!

[reshas]

Obama-flipflop-a-rama-lama-dingdong

[Jens Peermann]

I favor Obama, but the thought of a politician giving a speech in a sports stadium freaks me out. That's how political mass movements get started and they usually end in disaster.

[mike]

Obama, Mr. Bo jangles can not produce a valid birth certificate to prove he is American born. Why? Yet they made a big deal about McCains birth certificate. At every turn Mr. Bo Jangles dances around the subject. He even denies his religon being listed as muslum when he attended scholl. Why? Are people in this country so stupid they would elect someone who will make commusium a household word! He changes is views flip flioping like an old shower shoe.

[James]

I'm so there. I'm booking my ticket now for what is surely going to be a historic event!

I know you Obama haters on here are mad because John McCain can't fill a Nursing Home Rec Home much less than a stadium. And all you idiots comparing Hitler and Obama...Oh please, get a life and some better talking points. haha. You can really smell the Right's desperation this year and guess what...it smells absolutely fabulous.

!!!Obama 08!!!

[Mike]

Sounds like cold war era Romania. With communist party members staging events to give the impression of wide spread support for their policies. Of course, we never heard from the opposition, they were either dead, or in a mental hospital / prison.

[Gerry San]

A full stadium for an empty suit.
How appropriate.

[Karen]

Before you all vote be sure to read Wild Swans (by Jung Chang).

You'll need to be familiar with Mao's way of running China if Mr. Obama is elected. I understand Mr. Obama was an avid reader of his works.

Some of Mr. Obamas activities right now are similar, as in Vague Rhetoric to a attrack the youth.

I am a registered Democrat. To vote for Obama is to vote for Communism here in our country. I can't vote for that.

"NO" mr.obama, "WE CAN'T" We like our freedom to much.

[jimbo]

Oh goodie.....Obama can also get that singer to sing the Black version of the Star Spangled banner. If they fill this stadium with people it will be the Ship of Fools !!

[SukieTawdry]

I'm sorry, but this is...creepy. And displays a level of arrogance totally out of whack for someone of such modest accomplishment relative to the position he seeks. Obama might recall his struggle in obtaining sufficient numbers of Democratic delegates to assure his nomination and keep in mind that he has yet to persuade a majority of Americans to support his candidacy and conclude that a little more humility is in order . His tactic of framing himself as the choice of the masses by filling large venues with bodies smacks of cynicism (and, perhaps, worse). His campaign seems to be selling Obamanism as the new opiate for the masses, but, you know, in a good way. The thought of 76,000 swooning Obamatrons feverishly chanting "yes we can" on cue is just...creepy.

[dave]

i have a dream...that both obama and mccain will be officially recognized and ousted as lying imposters, and the serious, qualified presidential candidates with some integrity will be nominated.

[rob]

wow.
lifelong democrat here, and I won't drink Obama's Kool-Aid.

Volunteers are TOLD to stress their positive feelings about Obama - NOT HIS POLICIES (or lack thereof). JUST CHECK OUT THE FIRST POST IN THIS THREAD!!

Who cares how Zoe Kravitz feels about Obama? I don't care what Lenny Kravitz of Martin Luther's kids feel. I care about what his "policies" are.

99% of the Obama supporters i quiz KNOW NOTHING about his supposed policies.

Why can't everyone step back and see they are being shepherded by a 2nd rate motivational speaker?

Why would anyone buy into the marketing plan that he has put together? Fill a stadium?

The arrogance and marketing behind that strategy guarantees Obama will not get my vote.

[CW West]

I find it very disturbing that LAT is approving messages with attacks that have been proven false. It is well known that many are paid to spam rumors in forums just like this, and it shows a lack of journalistic integrity to approve lies and slanders. It also diminishes the value of the LAT forums.

[frank]

That fits, fill a stadium! Its all about image and a substance the gravitates to what works for the moment. At the present, I am not sure if I will vote for Obama, but so much of what he does is so unsettling and very un-presidential.
But this I know for sure, Michelle Obama is a very scary person to have as a presidents wife...very, very, very, scary. Will she have any access to any decision making, let us hope not. Read about her position at the hospital, how she acquired the job...not good! And yes, I will say it...a very angry black women with a grudge to bear.

[Mike]

What poster CW West is asking for is censorship . A freedom lover interested in truth would simply produce evidence to refute the lies. That West demands censorship of opposing views speaks volumes about his faith in his beliefs.

[dave]

others might find it disturbing - but being used to worse on a daily basis, won't be too upset by this further symptom of where the american republic and her basic values, liberty, freedom of speech...has been taken - that there are people who would now actually call for yet MORE censorship in an already openly and blatantly biased and censoring media; and in extension (as exemplified by that previous post), in what is in danger of becoming an obliviously corrupt, self-censoring fascist society.