The Republican National Committee had a bit of an email malfunction Thursday, Aug. 28, spamming reporters email accounts across the country.
About 80 emails, most of them news releases attacking Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, went out between 6:19 p.m. and 8:01 p.m. The news releases date back to July and have headlines such as “Dr. NObama” and “Obama’s Drilling Dilemma.”
Blair Latoff, spokeswoman for the RNC, apologized for the onslaught of old news releases.
“Apparently our server dumped all the emails that we sent over a period of months all at once,” she said, adding that the party is working to correct the problem.
The emails arrive on the eve of Republican Sen. John McCain’s speech at Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Fairborn. There is rampant speculation that he will announce his vice presidential pick early Friday or during the speech.
One presumes the RNC will have the problem worked out fast enough that the email deluge won’t clog reporter’s email accounts and keep us from getting the news release we’re all waiting for: McCain’s announcement of a running mate.
DENVER - Democrats gathered in INVESCO Field, usually the home of the football Denver Broncos, to hear Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech of the party’s presidential nomination.
It was the first outside acceptance speech in nearly 50 years - John F. Kennedy accepted the nomination at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles in 1960.
“John McCain is not a maverick. John McCain is a yes man,” Howard Dean, Democratic national chairman, said, warming up the crowd on Thursday, Aug. 28.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia reminded the Democrats that Thursday was the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech in Washington, D.C.
Obama was to speak at 8 p.m. Colorado time - 10 p.m . in Ohio. By 6 p.m. Colorado time most of the seats in the 76,000-seat stadium were filled with more people still filing in.
DENVER — Among the 15,000 or so journalists attending this year’s political conventions is a small army of bloggers that has been embraced by the parties.
Here at the Democratic National Convention, they’ve been operating at an 8,000-square foot headquarters dubbed The Big Tent, sponsored by the Daily Kos, Google, and other high-tech companies. They’ll pack the tent and move to St. Paul next week for the Republican convention.
Four years ago, bloggers numbered in the dozens at these quadrennial events. This year, the parties themselves are giving credentials to about 200 carefully selected bloggers, and hundreds more have been invited to share The Big Tent.
Nick DeCenzo and David Potts of Ohio are among the bloggers credentialed by the Democrats. They operate Buckeyestateblog.com, which draws more than 50,000 page views a month. That’s enough Web traffic to cover their costs through a small amount of advertising, they say.
DENVER - Ohio Democrats celebrated the life of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland as they gathered for their last breakfast meeting at the Democratic National Convention.
The Rev. Marvin McMickle, a Baptist minister, said on Thursday, Aug. 28, that he and Tubbs Jones, who died last week, both were fans of the Temptations. In Tubbs Jones’ honor, he recited the words to the group’s classic “My Girl.”
Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin joined other members of Delta Sigma Theta, in a singing tribute to their departed sorority sister.
Gov. Ted Strickland remembered a last meeting with Tubbs Jones.
“She gave me a hug. She kissed me on the cheek and she told me she loved me,” said Strickland said.
DENVER — All week long, battalions of black-clad cops in riot gear have loitered around downtown ready to confront anticipated anti-war demonstrators. They finally got their chance Wednesday.
Following a concert by Rage Against the Machine, which drew an estimated 8,000 people, about half of the concert-goers hit the streets for a march to the Pepsi Center where the Democratic National Convention was holding its roll call vote that would ultimately nominate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president.
The blocks-long parade was funneled through the streets by police flanking the marchers on bicycles, horseback and squad cars. Police blockades stalled traffic, both car and pedestrian, throughout the downtown area, but unlike protests on Monday that resulted in 107 arrests, this demonstration was peaceful.
Lawyers for protestors detained earlier in the week have promised lawsuit for the “illegal mass arrests.”
DENVER - Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden will bring their “On the Road to Change” battleground state bus tour to Dublin, a Columbus suburb, for a rally open to the public on Saturday, Aug. 30.
Obama and Biden will begin their trip after Obama formally accepts the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, Aug. 28, with Biden as his running mate.
Tickets are not required for the rally but an RSVP is strongly encouraged, the campaign announced on Thursday, Aug. 28. To RSVP, please visit the campaign Web site at www.oh.barackobama.com http://www.oh.barackobama.comhttp://www.oh.barackobama.com .
Where to see it: The Republican National Committee says it has paid between $2 million and $2.5 million to air this spot in “major markets in Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and western Pennsylvania.” View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: Narrator: “Who has the experience to govern our nation?”
Hillary Clinton: “Sen. McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign. I will bring a lifetime of experience. And Sen. Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002.”
Narrator: “Barack Obama. He gives a great speech. But now Americans must ask ourselves: Should we elect the most inexperienced presidential candidate of our times? Or was she right?”
Video: The ad opens with photos of Barack Obama and John McCain with a “who has the experience” question written underneath. Then it goes to the clip of Hillary Clinton disparaging Obama’s experience during the Democratic rivals’ bitter primary fight. There are shots of Obama making a speech and people cheering, and the narrator poses the final question.
Analysis: This Republican National Committee ad, although legally an “independent expenditure” that can’t be coordinated with the McCain campaign, continues a theme sounded by McCain and Republicans almost from the minute Obama picked Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., as his running mate.
The GOP is more than happy to beat on Obama by using criticisms of him, and sometimes praise of McCain, by Biden and Clinton.
On the one hand, Clinton said it, no getting around that. And at the time, Democrats just knew that if Obama won the nomination, she had handed Republicans a campaign commercial. On the other hand, Clinton has made it clear that she believes an Obama administration would be far preferable to a McCain administration on issues such as abortion rights, the economy and education.
“I just want to make it absolutely clear we cannot afford four more years of George W. Bush’s failed policies in America, and that’s what we would get with John McCain,” Clinton told the New York delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. “Now I understand that the McCain campaign is running ads trying to divide us, and let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads: I am Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message.”
Jonathan Riskind is a reporter in the Washington bureau of The Columbus Dispatch. E-mail: jriskind@dispatch.com.
Time to go back to school
Extreme Makeover: Home edition
Most Wanted (08/27/08)
What do you think?
Be the first person to comment on Just in case you missed the news release......