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Non-Flap Over Obama's Election Night Rally Venue
Obama's choice of the huge Grant Park as the venue for his election night festivities has generated a local flap of sorts in Chicago, with Mayor Richard Daley seeming to criticize Obama's pick.
Daley says the pick will create a logistical nightmare, and is suggesting the indoor United Center as a better, easier alternative. Daley is complaining that the Obama camp rejected this idea, generating some stories out of Chicago clouding the coming festivities that the Obama camp decidedly doesn't want right now.
It turns out, though, that Daley's suggestion and criticism is a non-starter: Obama couldn't use the United Center at any rate, because it's booked that night. Celine Dion is playing there on November 4th.
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How will Chicagoans decide Celine Dion or the election celebration with Obama? Tough one.
October 23, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mayor Daley, take it from one of your citizens. It's not your city anymore.
October 23, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who pays for this rally? I know there have been some complaints that cities are out $30,000 when Obama comes to town given the amount of overtime necessary for police and such.
I'd rather Obama be inside somewhere, where there would be much better security.
What if they compromised and held it at Soldier Field?
October 23, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Soldier Field is actually not a bad idea.
October 23, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
the bears are in town...wont happen. wrigley or u.s. celular....but f that, let it be in grant park
October 23, 2008 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's the big deal? It's Hutchinson Field, where Lollapalooza was. We play softball there, too.
October 23, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
My hotel is booked, dinner reservations made, and the champagne will be on ice.
I don't care where it is in Chicago, let's just party!
October 23, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The article I saw said that the cost to the city of Chicago was estimated at around 2 million. The Obama campaign has said they'll reimburse the city for it's expenses.
October 24, 2008 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here is how the election is now.
McCain is at this point in tic-tac-toe game. McCain being X and Obama of course being O's and it's now McCain's turn.
| X | O
---------
| O | X
---------
| X | O
October 23, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
boo..that didn't come out correct. :(
October 23, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Daley thinks the United Center was a better choice than Grant park he must be crazy. Parking would be a nightmare.
October 23, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
It sounds like he wanted to limit the number of people coming. The United Center couldn't fit much more than 20,000. Grant Park: 1,000,000+?
October 23, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. It's going to be like Times Square on NYE. Only with more booze.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
October 23, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hear, hear!
October 23, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
A day or so ago, there was a discussion about McCain's strategy of winning the fewest states possible in order to get to the magic number 270. It played out different possible outcomes of give and take. Can anyone direct me to the web site the writer based their post on, please?
Thanks!
October 23, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't from a few days ago, but it does focus on the narrow path to victory issue, and the importance of PA:
Mike Allen on McCain's path to victory
October 23, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks!
October 23, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have an interest in really creative science fiction, do you?
October 23, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dridge seems to be playing this election night bit as the scandal of the century; as if he were hourly expecting it to consume the country's attention.
Now, I wouldn't mention this but for the fact that it's the second best indicator before us today of how desperate the GOP is to manufacture something, anything, that will forestall Obama's momentum going into Nov. 4.
What's the best indicator, you ask?
Some halfwit Republican strategist on MSNBC just floated this trial ballon:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/gop-strategist-on-palins_n_137226.html
They try. Man, how they try.
October 23, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
The no-fly list chuckle was of course was supposed to be in reply to TomSutpen.
Obama is on the no-fly list because he associates with known terrorists. He cannot utilize a commercial flight.
October 23, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can see the McCoward stump speech now:
"Friends . . . why didn't Senator Obama take a commercial flight to visit his (air quotes) "dying" grandmother? Just who is this grandmother, anyway? I don't know the answers, fellow Americans, but I know that these are questions that you must have an answer to before you go to the polls on November 4.
My friends, when I selflessly suspended my campaign some weeks ago, it was to (starts pounding the lectern with every word; water glass knocks over) wrest this nation kicking and screaming out of the economic crisis that Senator Obama and his cronies at Fannie and Freddy are responsible for.(big applause; Confederate war whoops and shouts of 'Hanging's too good for him!' are heard from the rafters). I sacrificed valuable days of discussing issues that are vital to the American people, and I did it for you, my fellow prisoners; not for the sake of a private citizen so ashamed of being a Real American that she refuses to live in the continental United States. How did she come to have so much control over a United States Senator? What forces are behind her? Senator Obama, I urge you to come back from hiding overseas and face the American people's tough questions . . . just as I did when I took on the big spenders in Washington and the liberal establishment in the Hanoi Hilton. I have the scars to show for it, fellow inmates. (reaching the summa of oratory) Where are Senator Obama's scars?!
(Senator McCain is then embraced by his adoring wife Cindy while half the crowd begins to chase an African American security guard out into the street)
October 23, 2008 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, man, that's funny!
October 23, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
O I hope they flog the hell out of it - every time they say something about it they look worse.
The man's grandmother is dying - his second mother.
Jesus' tits!
October 23, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shit, almost out of beer money; there went another 25 to the O for airfare!
October 23, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
No mention of how Obama flying commercial would endanger every other passenger on board, and require a complete and total shut down of the passenger terminal, background checks on a zillion employees working there. All of which the GOPers would have a field day with.
October 23, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shameless.
October 23, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh for crying out loud.
Let's see. The rational lucid side of me says "Geez, what a nonstory. Yawn." Which means, of course, that the Republicans will be flacking this story relentlessly until Nov. 3.
The election cannot come soon enough.
October 23, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The harder they come...
Thanks Jimmy Cliff!
:-)
October 23, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
It WILL be a nightmare! But a happy nightmare. I'm hoping hyperRevue has friends to stay with. Chicago should just take the next day off! It will make for some interesting traffic jams. With happy people. And tipsy people! And I can understand a mayor's concern. Ok. He's expressed it. But folks will gather. No matter what!
October 23, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I voted Barack Obama today... we have early voting..... sorry John McCain.
:)
October 23, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only one early voting place in L.A. county in NORWALK, for godssake. I have to wait for the day of the landslide, but, oh, oh, oh, this is getting exciting.
October 23, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I voted for McCain last week. The letters that spell McCain are O-B-A-M-A aren't they?
October 23, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's wonderful news for everyone, HC08!
October 23, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why does Celine Dion hate America?
October 23, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama will pay all related costs for the rally (including for the rally itself-naturally), according to Lynn Sweet.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/mayor_daley_puts_2_million_cit.html
October 23, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Any report on where McCain will have his celebration/concession gathering? I assume he'll play this for political points - how Obama is being presumptuous. Of course I understand that these things need to be planned weeks in advance (at least).
It certainly sounds like it's going to be a logistical mess, closing and securing buildings, roads etc.
What other big events have been held in Grant Park?
October 23, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fireworks.
October 23, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jonze...of course McShmae will have his post election party in Hanoi!...You know where he spent 5 1/2 years preparing to become the President!
October 23, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's having his at the Biltmore in Phoenix.
October 23, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about Alaska? On an oil rig (that worked so well last time)? Surely, it will be in a pro-American part of the country....
October 23, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not likely since espousing Naziism is very illegal in Germany. Even owning a copy of Mein Kampf can land you in jail.
And anyway, why travel out of country--I'll bet more than one lily-white country club will be having a crying-in-the-mint-julep party on Nov. 4. I'm sure they'd be happy to have McShame join them.
October 23, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's at the Arizona Biltmore, I think.
October 23, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
This just in: The McCain party is at the Arizona Biltmore, but McCain won't be attending except to "drop in." He's delivering his remarks to the press pool only, outside.
If he was planning an acceptance speech, would he do this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081023/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_election_night_2
October 23, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting.
October 23, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
This cracked me up:
* Posted by harryshoe z6easternPA (My Page) on
Thu, Oct 23, 08 at 13:46
Obama is on the no-fly list because he associates with known terrorists. He cannot utilize a commercial flight.
October 23, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
LMAO!
Yeah this harryshoe is fucking brilliant - someone on the "no fly" list is going to be president. Sure. That would have gone unnoticed until now.
October 23, 2008 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Daley is an idiot and I wish we had term limits here.
October 23, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eeek!! If I learned anything during my time in Vegas, it was that Celine Dion fans, especially ones with tickets to a concert, are not to be trifled with!!
I hope Mayor Daley has his asbestos underdrawers handy....
October 23, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
No shit.
I pissed off a friend of mine this summer when she told me so excited that she was looking forward to this concert she'd had tickets for for a year and then when I asked who it was she Celine Dion and I'm afraid my reaction pissed her off permanently.
I'm afraid I don't care, either. Sorry - ;)
October 23, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Basically, I rolled on the floor laughing uncontrollably.
October 23, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gosh, she sounds pretty thin-skinned, if you ask me....
:-}
October 23, 2008 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like you would not believe. She's developed a chip on shoulder about me and for the life of me I don't know why.
It isn't as if anyone we know listens to what I listen to and I catch all kinds of shit for it and could not care less.
Which I pointed out. O well!
October 23, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
One more for the "Damn, and they call us a cult?" file.
Back during the outpouring of derision over TeamHillary's decision (which lasted, as I recall, all of three days) to choose a Celine song to be her campaign theme song, they got really upset over the flood of "WTF, are they crazy?" comments. It took me a while to catch on that those were coming from adoring Celine Dion fans rather than Hillary fans.
October 23, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live in Chicago - Wrigley is too small, same with US Cellular (but seeing that Obama's a Sox fan, then that makes more sense. Both can only hold 100,000 max.
Grant Park seems a bit small for the 2-3 million or more people that will come out...but it will prove to be the best place, albeit a nightmare for those of us living downtown because to fit that many people, they'd have to shut down MAJOR streets like Michigan Avenue.
But DAMN, will November 4th be a great day, not only for Chicago, but the entire U.S. and the world!!
October 23, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps there is a beer hall in Germany where McCain and Palin could have their election night rally. Brownshirts required.
October 23, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jonze,,,, don't you remember all those big events in Grant Park during the 68 Democratic Convention?
The late Mayor Daley wasn't too keen on that use by the people of the park either,,,, must run in the family.
This time people power wins out! Thanks, Barack.
October 23, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
A little bit of symbolism here, you think?
In the '68 Chicago riot, the Democratic party nearly died. '08 Chicago, it will be reborn.
October 23, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Daley is a fading power, and not before time. His reputation as a good mayor (basically well deserved) was built in the 1990s. But he has been running the city into the ground for the last seven or eight years. His recent performance has me thinking once again about term limits.
On a non-entirely unrelated note, I'm suspecting those Celine Dion tickets might not scalp very well. I don't think the biggest election night in Chicago history is very good timing.
October 23, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
My sister lives five blocks from the Obamas and has known them for years. She is hoping that Michelle might take the kids treat-or-treating on her block next Friday but apparently the kids are staying with their grandmother (Michelle's mother) in another area. However, she will be at Grant Park on Election Night!
October 23, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I say, in a surprise move, Celine should move her concert to Grant Park and she and Obama break out in a duet of "The Power of Love."
October 23, 2008 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know any Celine Dion songs, but I have to say I'd even pay money to see that!
October 23, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grant park if great because it is so open ended. I was there for the last really great political event. Remember 68?
What worries me is Chicago weather in November. Maybe wet and cold. Lets hope not.
October 23, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
More on Grant Park for those not familiar with Chicago - but come on down for the party!
http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/parks.results.cfm
October 23, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hubby and I are staying at Hard Rock. Unfortunately, House of Blues has Hanson playing. I was hoping for some blues!
Just drink more....
October 23, 2008 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama wants an outdoor venue in early November? I hope he has marquees up, it will be cold. Obama should be able to pay for this fete for himself. He should have $$ left over from his campaign
October 23, 2008 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
He should hire the group Cchicago to play, "Tuesday Night in the Park"
October 23, 2008 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
We'll be partying in the streets in my neighborhood in So.Cal. I love Chicago.Went to a great latin street fair one summer in Grant park. The place is huge and open ended.Plus we are democrats and we know how to party in a big sea of humanity. Wish I could be there. 538 has a McCain win percentage at 3.7%. Don't tell anyone I want everyone to vote!
October 24, 2008 12:00 AM | Reply | Permalink