Democratic Party Convention 2012
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Wednesday night Democratic convention speakers are prime GOP targets
Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren stands at the podium during a walkthrough at the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena, on Sept. 4, 2012, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
/ Alex Wong/Getty Images(CBS News) CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Democratic National Convention's featured speaker Wednesday night -- former President Bill Clinton -- knows a thing or two about right-wing criticism. But it's the rest of the Wednesday night lineup that has come under the most fire from Republicans this year.
Wednesday night's program includes progressives who have become prime targets of Republicans, like Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke. The Democrats will also defend their record on free enterprise with several businessmen -- one of whom has ties to the Solyndra controversy. Ahead of the appearances at the Time Warner Cable Arena, conservatives are launching attacks against all three.
Pelosi and Warren
One of Congress' most recognizable liberals, San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi, will take the stage this evening around 7 p.m. ET. Pelosi is so disdained by conservatives that her name is regularly invoked when conservatives want to cast other Democrats as too liberal and wrong-headed. The conservative outside group Club for Growth this week launched an ad attacking Democratic Senate candidate Joe Donnelly for voting for Pelosi to serve as speaker of the House.
While Pelosi has long been a favorite GOP target, conservatives have more recently zeroed in on Elizabeth Warren, the Senate candidate challenging Republican Sen. Scott Brown in the blue state of Massachusetts. Warren has been hailed as a champion of the left for helping President Obama establish the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, which was set up as part of the Wall Street regulatory haul.
Democratic Convention 2012: complete coverage
The liberal grassroots group the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) supports Warren so strongly that it collected $1 million in donations from its members to back her campaign. PCCC members are gathering together to watch Warren's speech at around 10 p.m. ET.
A senior campaign official tells CBS News that Warren tonight will talk about "how for too long the system was rigged against the middle class." Republicans, aiming to defeat Warren in the competitive Massachusetts race, are interpreting that message as "Occupy" extremism.
The Republican National Committee Wednesday afternoon emailed reporters that Warren's appearance at the DNC "is a reminder of Obama's belief in the government over individuals and free enterprise." The RNC has in the past month used an out-of-context quote from Mr. Obama -- "you didn't build that" -- to cast the president as anti-business. They said today that Mr. Obama's views are a "watered down" version of Warren's beliefs.
Democrats' private sector allies
The Democrats this evening have several businessmen lined up to counter the "you didn't build that" narrative.
Jim Sinegal, the former CEO of Costco, will specifically take on that line of attack in his speech, according to the Obama campaign. Sinegal will support the president's message that a strong government can help drive the private sector. As a CEO, the campaign said, Sinegal will say he needed a well-educated workforce to keep his company running.
Other private sector speakers include Bill Butcher, the founder of the Virginia-based Port City Brewing Company, and Austin Ligon, the former CEO of CarMax. Ligon will talk about how the auto bailout helped not just car manufacturers, but businesses up and down the supply chain.
Tom Steyer, a partner at the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, is also speaking. His presence will serve as a counter to Romney, who founded the private equity firm Bain Capital. Tonight's lineup also features workers who were allegedly undercut due to the business practices of Bain Capital.
Republicans are drawing attention to one more private sector speaker -- venture capitalist Steve Westly of the Westly Group, who is speaking close to 6 p.m. ET. Westly, who has a history in California politics, has strong ties to the Obama campaign: He is a major donor and served as the California co-chair for Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign. He also has ties to the controversy over Solyndra, the failed solar company that received $535 million in stimulus loans.
The Republican National Committee emailed reporters today with a slew of information about how Westly's business ventures have benefited from Obama administration policies, calling his speaking slot the "latest perk" for a major Obama donor. The email was sent with the subject line, "Solyndra Stars On Stage At DNC."
Abortion rights supporters
Tonight's lineup also features some of the Democrats' most high-profile reproductive rights activists: Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and feminist activist Sandra Fluke, best known for supporting the Obama administration policy requiring full health insurance coverage for contraception.
The RNC said today, "The Democratic National Convention has signaled from the start an unapologetic, and at times, confrontational, liberalism, marked by details like the presence of reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke."
Meanwhile, the anti-abortion rights group the Susan B. Anthony List emailed supporters today with a fundraising plea based on the Democrats' support of Planned Parenthood.
"Did you see the platform released yesterday at the Democratic National Convention?" the email said. "It is their most radical platform yet: It calls for abortion on-demand, for any reason, up until the moment of birth... paid for by the taxpayers! ... That's why I need your immediate help for an emergency television ad buy targeting President Obama and his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention."
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The amazing thing about Charlotte is how it rankles the GOP bozos who still call themselves "Republican" instead of "independent", "Libertarian" or "Tea Party". They cannot simply get over natural phenomena like "confrontational liberalism" (gasp!).
But what bothers them the most is Democrats having a good time together, showing the stuff that wins elections-- a good platform, a record of achievement, and a promising field of candidates.
They have increased the national deficit every time they are in office, but deeply criticize the democrats when they do the very same thing. When the GOP is in power the debt they create is never a problem, but now when the economy is in deep trouble they just want to slash and cut everything. When the real answer is to get Americans back to work and paying taxes again.
Even though they promised making creating jobs the number 1 priority, the GOP has never created one single job. Instead they practice partisanship and a vendetta against president Obama, and bragged about they were going to do this.
We need congressmen and women that will work to solve the problems facing America today, not some gaggle of political hacks with their own agenda, and who are against every thing. We need to vote these GOP slackers out of office, and put in people that will do the job required. That means compromising.
The party of no should be told no when the ballots are counted. The GOP does not have a plan, they can only attack and make statements that are less than truthful.
This is not the kind of politics we need! We need movers and shakers that will guide the country into prosperity, not divide us into oblivion.
Cowboys - 24
Giants - 17
Final
I encourage readers (and Stephanie, for that matter) to go to Google.com and enter the phrase ""fact check" site:cbsnews.com". You will find page after page of "fact checks" against Republicans, but not ONE taking on a Democrat. The liberal bias is undeniable, there for all to see - except, of course, to liberals such as Stephanie and every other CBS News reporter / writer / producer / editor who are convinced that only Republicans ever lie.
LOL! I heard CBS is hiring! You'd fit right in!
These kinds of people are what make up the majority of the Democratic party.
Their delegates Booed God in America!!!
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cut off their heads!
we need to get rid of this church and state separation crap
then we can start wearing turbans and kill muslims with impunity
wait a minute....
we act just like them!
voodoochile?
that's a good one
you are probably a fat little white boy making 5 bucks an hour in Karl Rove's boiler room who crosses the street when he sees a black person on the same side.
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Actually, that is more or less how it happened-- with a little help from a scoundrel named Santa Anna.
In the early 1830's, American (and some European) settlers living in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas agitated continuously for what they imagined to be certain rights due them. The only problem is those "rights" were not directly related to the sovereign state of Mexico, but were taken from the American system of government.
Despite placatory efforts by the post-civil war Mexican government-- efforts so effective, even Stephen F. Austin said every concern had been addressed-- American settlers continued to organize and bypass legally-constituted channels of complaint and reform. They held a convention in 1833 not only to put their demands to the Mexican government, but to declare their province independent, for all intents and purposes.
In most contexts, this is understood as an insurrection, and the Mexican government-- as weak and widely distributed as its forces were-- was not able to put down the rebellion. The justice of the settler complaints was an issue easily eclipsed by the fact their complaints became demands and acts of treason against the state which invited the settlers.
"Swiping" what became known as Texas territory, well before it became a state, was an act of secession that succeeded only after the Alamo defenders and those at Goliad had been wiped out by Gen. Santa Anna. That act of secession is not unparalleled in human history, since the American colonies of Britain had taken matters into their collective hands in similar fashion only decades before.
But it is easily argued the American settlers were invited to live by Mexican laws in Mexican territory, and by so doing, the settlers agreed to become law abiding Mexican citizens. Their insurrection was seen by most other Mexicans as a theft and bitterly resented.
Lost on these Mexicans is the fact it was Santa Anna who secretly negotiated with US Naval forces to be allowed to reenter Mexico after his defeat in the 1846 war, promising to sell all disputed Mexican territory to the United States.