RUSH: Nancy Pelosi says the Democrats ought to skip the Democrat convention. Stay in your district and campaign. Stay in your district and pass out food stamps. Stay in your district and pass out loaves of bread, whatever it takes. Don’t go to the convention. Pelosi says that Democrat members ought to stay home and campaign rather than go to North Carolina.
“I’m not encouraging anyone to go to the convention, having nothing to do with anything except I think they should stay home, campaign in their districts, use their financial and political resources to help them win their election. We nominated a president last time. We have an incumbent President of the United States. We’re very proud of him. There certainly will be enough people there to express that pride, but I’m not encouraging members to go to the convention no matter what the situation was, because they can be home.”
There’s no big deal. Nothing extraordinary happening there. We’re gonna renominate Obama; big whoop. No need to go there. Well, there’s no unions. That’s one of the reasons, unspoken reasons. They don’t want to be seen with Obama. That’s what nobody’s willing to tell you.
Do you see the inconsistency of Pelosi’s message? On the one hand, she’s consistently confident in her predictions that Democrats will retake the House. And then she expresses all kinds of great pride in her incumbent president. Now, if retaking the House is such a slam dunk, why do you have to stay home and campaign? If it’s such a slam dunk, why do you have to campaign? If it’s such a slam dunk, why can’t you go to North Carolina and be present for the coronation, for the start of the second term of our historic first black president?
Why wouldn’t you want to be there for that moment of history?
Why wouldn’t you want to be seen by the TV cameras and the world on the floor of that great stadium, which used to be called Bank of America Stadium, but is gonna be called New Black Panther Stadium that night. Uh, Panther Stadium. Did I say New Black Panthers? You know what? That isn’t a bad idea. Call it New Black Panther Stadium. Well, they’re calling it Panther Stadium. The Carolina Panthers play there. So much for naming rights. If you’re Bank of America, you paid a huge amount for that stadium.
It isn’t cheap. They paid $140 million over a length of time to have their name on that stadium. As an aside, nobody’s ever explained to me the value of that, but I guess the people make these calculations. They say, “Yeah, Bank of America.” I laugh at some of the names of these stadiums. (interruption) Well, I don’t want to mention any because I don’t want to run down the businesses that name these stadiums. I have nothing against them. (interruption) No, not Heinz Field. They call it “Ketchup Field.” Not that. Some of them are just…
Anyway, they bought the naming rights, Bank of America. And Obama says (impression), “Nooo, no. Not that night! I don’t like banks. Well, I like banks, but I can’t have my voters thinking I do. We’re gonna call it Panther Field.” Why wouldn’t you want to be there for the coronation of the first black president’s second term? Why wouldn’t you want your face seen? Why wouldn’t you want to be seen around the world cheering this wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime moment on television? Why wouldn’t you want to be there?
Especially if taking the House back is such a slam dunk that you don’t need to be campaigning! If the Democrats in Congress are so proud of Obama like Pelosi says, why are they running away from him at such an historic time? I don’t remember such a long list of recognizable elected officials skipping a national political convention and making news about it. I’m sure there have been a lot of people not show up, but I’ve ever heard of so many prominent elected officials calling press conferences or issuing statements saying, “Guess what? I am not gonna be there! Please note.”
That’s unprecedented.