It’s just a stadium

July 8, 2008

The DNC and the Obama campaign, confirming a week of rumors, announced yesterday that Barack Obama will accept the party’s presidential nomination at Denver’s Invesco Field at Mile High. The stadium, home to the Denver Broncos, can accommodate more than 75,000 people, more than triple the number in the arena where the rest of the convention will be held.

The idea strikes me as a pretty good one. It will be the first convention acceptance speech in a stadium since JFK in 1960, and it will take advantage of Obama’s unique ability to generate extraordinary crowds. I have no idea what they’ll do if the weather fails to cooperate, but barring that, it seems like a winning move.

It’s curious, though, to see how the far-right has responded to the announcement. I noticed that there were some right-wing blogs that compared the notion of an Obama speech at Invesco Field to a Hitler rally in Nazi Germany. The National Review picked up on this, too.

“So, the recent news out of the Obama camp is that they’re planning a huge rally with thousands of people in a stadium, want to create a mandatory youth corps for national service, and are thinking about a big dramatic speech in Berlin.

It’s like they’re trying to sell copies of Jonah’s book [about ‘liberal fascism’] or something.”

Like many far-right arguments, I find all of this a little odd.

For one thing, since when do stadium rallies necessarily lead to comparisons to Hitler, fascism, and Nazis? Across the country and around the world, stadiums are routinely used for sporting events, concerts, religious rallies (the Pope routinely hosts events in stadiums), protests, and in the JFK example, convention speeches. How, exactly did the right decide to make the leap to Hitler?

And for another, four years ago, the Republican National Committee and the Bush campaign considered a plan to have George W. Bush deliver his convention speech at Yankee Stadium. At the time, I don’t recall any Dems comparing the plan to fascism.

Conservatives sure do pick strange things to complain about.

You are making the mistake of treating conservative arguments as attempts to analyze or understand some issue. They aren’t. They aren’t “a little odd.” They are either stupid or mendacious or perhaps both. No one with a working brain is meant to take them seriously.

  • “I noticed that there were some right-wing blogs that compared the notion of an Obama speech at Invesco Field to a Hitler rally in Nazi Germany.

    “Like many far-right arguments, I find all of this a little odd.”

    Fuck ODD. This is just downright disgusting, and its only going to get worse.

  • I think it’s a simple matter of this:

    1. Their candidate can get 75,000 people in a renowned sports arena on an hour’s notice. Our guy can get two dozen retirees in a church basement–if we provide transportation and promise to get everyone home by 8:30.

    2. How can we make this huge outpouring of support for the other guy seem nefarious and unpatriotic instead of impressive, exciting and historical?

    3. Long pause. Mumble to selves. Eat Maalox tabs.

    4. Got it! Compare to Nazi rallies and Hitler Youth!

  • Well, what’s the alternative, try to convince a majority of the American voting public that their stances on the issues are superior? Would you want that job?

  • Our guy can get two dozen retirees in a church basement–if we provide transportation and promise to get everyone home by 8:30.

    He really should consider a free early bird steak buffet and a raffle for a Buick. That should net him at least 50 more.

  • And a choice of jello or rice pudding for dessert might bring in another 20 or 30, jibeaux.

  • Maria has got it pegged: Bitterness driven by envy…

    It pains them that McCain couldn’t half-fill their favorite rathskeller even if he offered free beer, Maalox, and pretzels…

  • Have any of these guys been to Billy Graham Crusade recently? They are always held at stadiums, draw huge crowds, have lots of youth outreach programs ….

    I’m just saying.

  • I think most of these ‘conservative arguments’ (to use brent’s phrase) are really their way of stating how scared they really are about losing power.

    When was the last time a GOP Presidential candidate drew 75000 (not counting the millions who protested against Bush II assuming office)? Does anyone know if Reagan ever held speeches to such large groups of people?

    I would also speculate that their use of the terms described are largely a projection of their own thoughts. David Neiwert has done a lot of work describing how these extreme right-wing and hate groups operate – and how what they spew enter the conservative/mainstream/corporate media outlets.

  • If Obama keeps backing away from the Democratic party, will he still be able to draw the crowds?

  • “Bet you can’t catapult that propaganda over Mile High Stadium.”
    “Oh, yeah, watch this…”

  • Speaking of crowds, that was the main reason that McSame wanted all those town hall meetings. McSame can’t draw flies; pair him with Obama and he draws 100x his average audience.

  • “(the Pope routinely hosts events in stadiums)”

    While taking cheap shots ….

    The Pope was a Nazi when he was young.

    Obama was a Muslim when he was young.

    Connect the dots and what do you get?????

  • If you want a modern American political speech that looked like a Hitler Youth Rally, dig up footage of Pat Buchanan’s speech to the Republican convention in 1992! I think it did more to torpedo Bush Senior’s reelection campaign than almost anything else. It was quite scary! The speech was scary and Buchanan’s people had filled the front rows with blond, blue-eyed Aryan types to cheer his call to arms for a “culture war” to preserve America.

  • I hope someone can sneak in and put a green curtain behind McCain for his acceptance speech. Imagine what we’ll see on Colbert then.

  • ” 11.
    On July 8th, 2008 at 5:22 pm, lynn said:

    If Obama keeps backing away from the Democratic party, will he still be able to draw the crowds?”

    Yes, because he is not backing away from his party; this is only a Repug talking point.

    And if you are right, he will still fill the stadiums because having a 15% + party identification edge means that there are tons of others who will happily take their places at party events.

  • If you want a modern American political speech that looked like a Hitler Youth Rally, dig up footage of Pat Buchanan’s speech to the Republican convention in 1992!

    Damn, you’re so right! I had forgotten all about that. All those fat-faced blond boys nodding ecstatically at Buchanan, looking like they were about to rise and goosestep en masse out of the auditorium. Didn’t Molly Ivins start the “It was better in the original German” joke referring to that speech?

  • I listened to Obama’s talk about women’s reproductive rights. It reminded me of Tom Cruise’s tirade against post partum depression. Both were profoundly ignorant. I would rather think that Obama is moving to the center than to think he is simply ignorant.

  • neil: Confused.

    barkleyg @ 17: He’s taking the DINO points, not the DNC or progressive ones. That’s not exactly embracing the party whole. Now, flip flopping is a Republican point. Not embracing progressives? That’s a Democratic point.

  • “Conservatives sure do pick strange things to complain about.”
    You have no idea. As a registered Republican, I’m on the RNC mailing list. What I see on a regular basis makes this statement no out-of-line at all. And don’t get me started on the party-rallying phone calls. I particularly like the ones that are not robo-calls as it gives me the opportunity to tell the caller to go Cheney themselves.

  • While we’re discussing Nazi-style rallies, any word on whether Obama plans to use federal employees to ensure the ideological purity of the audience?

  • Have any of these guys been to Billy Graham Crusade recently?

    My first thought as well.

    Also, FDR made major addresses at Soldier Field and Madison Square Garden, and JFK had his acceptance speech at the Rose Bowl (?) in L.A.

    Sorry your guy can’t attract more than 20 people to his events.

  • It boggles my mind to see how willfully inconsistent the right-wing can be on their attack points. It’s literally knee-jerk. There must be a passage like this somewhere in some right-wing field manual:”Whatever Obama says, whatever our enemy says, attack it as a matter of principle. Doesn’t matter what it is, doesn’t matter if it’s even a point we’d otherwise endorse, attack the shit out of it. Our base will follow us no matter what we say, they’re either dumb enough to believe what we say, or appreciate our efforts to convince the dumb ones. After that, we pretty much only have to convince a slim majority of the independents and boom, we’ve got ourselves a mandate! So worry about logic later. Worry about hypocrisy tomorrow! All that matters is the attack today! Seig heil!”

    Or…you know…words to that effect.

    But remember, I’m not a real progressive, and I don’t know what I’m talking about.

  • I get so angry at the Repubs talking points that I could scream for hours. I am now living in Richmond VA and am so shocked by the letters to the newspaper by some of these rabid McCain or Repub supporters. The truth is something they can’t be bothered with at all. They take whatever smears they can find and run with them. It is evil.

  • Republicans are suggesting this to be a Hitler rally? I really don’t see the connection. I mean, it’s not like we’re all going to march out at night in long lines, with a torch in one hand and a rock in the other, and smash every stinking Republican window in every right-wing church, business, and home. We’re not going to burn down their homes, and throw huge bonfire parties where we torch their Bibles, and their autographed pictures of George Bush, and their bibles, and their Rod Parsley cassette tapes, and their Chick tracts. I’m not seeing long lines of empty boxcars lined up outside all the major urban centers, waiting to transport Republican families to ghetto-like enclaves, forced-labor internment camps, or “re-education centers,” or “solution facilities.”

    Well—at least not yet, anyway. But if the Republicans want to say that we’re going to do that to them, then who am I to call them a bunch of filthy little liars?

    Do they really, REALLY want Einer Demokratische SeitengewehrNacht where they’re on the receiving end of it all? Sounds to me like they’ve been reading a few too many of those Martyrdom for Dummies rants from Hagee and Company….

  • Yup. That’s what all they have left– Obama is just like Hitler.

    That and he’s the anti-Christ.

    There really is nothing worse they can compare him to, is there?

    Personally I hope they go more public with bizarre assertions like these– it makes them look equal parts crazy and desperate.

  • Aren’t these the same people who belong to places called mega-churches??? Who follow people like James Dobson and give money to Pat Robertson?

    Sometimes the right is just downright silly.

  • Al I can say is that I hope the Rockies aren’t playing at home that day, because they are going to need to rent Mile High Stadium just for the overflow — and may need the Colorado Springs Triple A ball park as well. (The thought of a flood of overflow Democrats ‘invading’ Colorado Springs — home to Dobson and — until the fall — Haggard, and other radical Christian groups makes me ‘chortle in my glee.’)

  • It’s going to be embarassing if Obama can’t fill that stadium. Kos said it best, that it was the enthusiasm of his supporters that Obama would lose by his FISA let down.

  • The Rockies are in San Francisco that week, then San Diego. So the Mile-High Stadium is apparently available. How convenient!

    I’ve been to Colorado Springs. The prospect of filling it with happy Dems is just delicious.

  • You know the old saying, “you see what you know.” Well, in the case of the Right, it’s not illogical for a gaggle of failed fascist wannabees to see the thing they most want: a large rally in adoration of The Leader (Der Fuhrer, in German).

  • Dale you really should believe everything you read.

    Do you honestly believe he couldn’t fill a stupid stadium of 75,000 people? Uh, in the primary he had 18 million alone. Since then he’s gained more and more. You really should THINK before you post such foolish wishful thinking. (Oh, i guess you say 30 million supporters are all dropping out because of FISA? ROFLMAO, really).

    Just so you know, enthusiasm is higher than ever before. We’re out in every community registering voters, knocking on doors, raising money. In my own little reddish town of 13,000 in central FL we registered 30 new Obama supporters and raised 200 bucks on July 4th. Literally thousands of events we’re held like this over that weekend and we actually haven’t officially started organizing in the communities I earnest. Thsi is just stuff individuals carried out on their own…now that the campaign’s paid staff are arriving, we’re really about to kick it into high gear. Are you really that ignorant?

    My dear, Dale, the blogosphere is not reality. Its a small subset of a very specific demographic. There are plenty who are disappointed about FISA. A few that say they won’t contribute but will still vote for him. Very Very Very few who say they won’t contribute or vote. That’s fine. He’s OK with the few drop outs (probably b/c his polling shows exactly how few it really was) and so am I.

    Make NO mistake about it, Dale: there is a LOT of enthusiasm and grassroots community effort going on that you probably won’t see the full effect of until election day. My little red town will probably end up narrowly going blue, by all appearances. So will MANY others nationwide.

    Hang on to you hat.And don’t try to comfort yourself with lies.

  • As any visiting NFL team knows, Mile High is a very loud venue. What great opportunism by Obama’s team and the DNC to secure this as a place where Obama’s acceptance speech will be given. It will look and sound great on TV.

    The stadium will fill. Obama took this state’s primary with over 60% of the vote, with the usual record number of participants. The West is filled with many disillusioned by the Republican’s rapacious ways. This will be a good crowd.

    I’m already trying to get tickets. I’ll be waving to you all from the stands.

    P.S. — the Rockies play at Coors Field, not Mile High, and even the right-wing Coors family is providing ethanol derived from their brewing process waste to make the Dem Convention a greener one.

  • It’s interesting how pre-emptive the conservatives are: they must be painfully aware of how charges of fascism, of how their rallies will have to rely more upon trickery so they try to get the other side smeared first.

    I think they made a big mistake, though. Coming on so hard upon so many little things when they have such great gaping faults makes them look like spoiled brats and whiny cowards. They bite and cheat, and whine about how unfair everyone else is.

    So it’s time to label them with the one term that they hate the most:
    Republicans are sissies.

  • Conservatives sure do pick strange things to complain about.

    It’s sick. When Obama had plane troubles recently, the news site (ABC?) was filled with comments saying it was a cheap stunt to get headlines. Sick. Others are complaining that the event wouldn’t have been newsworthy had McCain had the same troubles.

    Blame the media / Compare to Hitler. This is political discourse.

    Is anyone keeping a list of comparisons to Hitler & Nazi Germany made in this campaign? Christ, it gets OLD. Bruce Springsteen performed in stadiums. Where are the Bruce Springsteen comparisons?

  • Shorter fReichtards: Aaaieeeee! A popular, powerful black guy! I’m SCARED!!!

    There really are people who are convinced that if the U.S. ever has an African-American president he’ll institute Operation Get Whitey the moment he’s in office. (A female president would institute Operation Bobbitt.)

  • Given that the average Republican is openly or secretly an admirer of Hitler, I see no reason to think that this line of propaganda won’t backfire a little bit.

  • These right ring idiots make me sick. They have absolutely nothing to run
    on so they just point fingers and make up idiotic remarks.
    The voters are not going to fall for their swiftboating and McCains
    floundering on everything he says.
    They have created chaos for our country and are making laughing
    stocks of theirselves with their attempts to make people think
    they really care about us.
    “Give me a break!”
    Go Obama

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