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July 28, 2008 09:41 PM UTC

Schaffer Not Attending RNC

  • 58 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the National Journal reports:

Nine of 12 targeted Republicans running in the most competitive Senate races this fall are either skipping the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., or have not decided whether to attend.

Among those who will not attend are Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who is not close to presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is a McCain loyalist. Stevens and Collins will use the convention week to focus on their campaigns.

Also sending regrets is former Rep. Bob Schaffer of Colorado, running for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Wayne Allard…

And while Schaffer eschews Minnesota to campaign in Colorado, his Democratic foe for the Senate seat, Rep. Mark Udall, can keep campaigning while attending his party’s convention, since it is in his home state.

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58 thoughts on “Schaffer Not Attending RNC”

      1. I guess it’s really a drubbing of the Republican brand and Schaffer looks like he’s making a wise move by staying away.

        OK, no sympathy for him.

        1. ……in my naivete I missed the drubbing or drumming implicit in the notice.  It seems that BS can spin his skipping of the RNC pretty positively……so what’s the BFD?  But I ain’t always so perceptive as them that post all the time.

          1. Drubbing was the wrong word. Still, it’s a lot of news about the Senate candidates all at once.

            The National Journal article, which is here (the Pols link is reflexive), points out that three-fourths of the targeted Republicans are skipping their convention, while most Democrats are making time for theirs.

            By contrast, most Democrats in those races are either planning to attend the party’s late August convention in Denver or are leaning toward attending the event that will formally make Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois the party’s nominee for president.

            The Republican convention will be bookended by speeches from President Bush, whose low approval ratings have caused many candidates to keep him at arm’s length, and McCain, who is still trying to mend fences with conservatives. But none of the absentees or potential no-shows is publicly citing Bush or McCain as the reason for their decisions.

            Like I said above, wise move by Schaffer.

            1. …thanks for the link.  Personally, I think it’s because Denver is more tolerable than MSP at this time of year.  High-cycle dryer is better than steam-room-gone-haywire humid.  No?

        1. I’m glad you keep making it over and over. Can you point me to your similar digs at McCain when he spent time campaigning in Iraq, Israel, Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Colombia and Mexico? They must have been just as pithy.

          1. Met with leaders.  Obama went to the gym, and gave a campaign speech to a bunch of foreigners.  And met with wounded troop….er…um…

                1. If it’s a photo op they didn’t actually meet so its not a meeting.  Even though there’s a photo right there showing them meeting.

                  I forgot, up is down, white is black.  I have trouble sometimes grasping the right wing logic lately.

                  1. But it wasn’t the purpose of his trip, and that’s obvious.

                    I like the guy, but he’s making it easy for my side.

                    FISA

                    Public Financing

                    That wacky church

                    the Surge

                    More troops for Afghanistan?  Suuuuuuuuure.

                    Next?  COme on, Fidel.  His trip was not the best move for him at this point and in this way.

                    1. …I’m not sure which side you claim to represent.  The largely ignored, wholly outplayed, without-any-populist-demonstration side?  That side is doing well!  Congrats, sweetie!

                    2. “Next?  COme on, Fidel.  His trip was not the best move for him at this point and in this way”

                      From CNN this morning:

                      “Obama now holds a 6-point lead in CNN’s average of national polls, 45 percent to 39 percent, up from the 3-point margin over McCain the Democratic presidential candidate held at the end of last week. The increase is due to the wider spread Gallup is reporting – a poll that was conducted toward the end of Obama’s highly covered trip abroad. The results suggest Obama’s trip – which was extensively covered by the national and international media – may have given the Illinois senator a sizeable bump in the polls.”

                      Laughing Boy, your arguments used to be pretty damn well reasoned in the past.  What has happened to you ?

                    3. I think his speech in Berlin won’t play well with most swing voters, and may have served to energize the Republican base.

                      Obama is losing now in a survey of likely voters, after being up since May.  Remember, the youth vote is pretty squirrelly. Lots of noise, not always a lot of turnout.

                      He made a tremendous mistake in not going to see the injured troops, whether his reasons were good or not.  It’s now given McCain the ability to run those ads that might actually have some traction.

                    4. The Gallup poll’s likely voter numbers are being soundly beaten on by poll watchers.  Gallup polled both likely and registered voters, and the registered voter poll was in favor of Obama.

                      To match the numbers, Obama must’ve been winning among UNlikely voters by 61%-7%.  (Gallup says with their weighting, it was “only” 51%-21%…)

                    5. With ALL THAT ATTENTION on his vacation, don’t you think he’d be getting a bump?

                      Instead, he’s down as of today.  Among registered voters.

                    7. Obama has a 6 point lead against McCain in today’s tracking poll, which is at or above his average lead in that poll.

                      I prefer 538’s statistical analysis: Obama with a 2.7% lead over McCain.

                    8. 9 points up at the beginning of the week.

                      I think you’re about right, but I would have thought he’d have a bgger lead at this point.  It’s only going to get harder from here on out for Sen. Obama.

                    9. wingers are funny the way cats are funny – they take themselves absolutely seriously and when they fail at something (like falling off a windowsill) they start licking a body part in an attempt to deflect attention elsewhere.

                      Obama issued a foreign policy beat down this week, demonstrated by the heads of state more than happy to spend extended periods of time with a man perceived to be the frontrunner to be the next President and who represents a return to a foreign policy run by adults.  King Abdullah flew back from Denver to meet with him, Obama had extended discussions with both the Conservative and Labor party leaders in Britain, and even al-Maliki welcomed Obama (as one Republican observer sagely opined about al-Maliki’s endorsement of a timeline, “we’re f**cked.”)

                      And John McCain couldn’t get 200,000 people to show up for a speech if they handed out $100 bills at the door. Arguing your opponent is too popular isn’t an insult.

                      As far as the troops are concerned, the same Pentagon that had no problem with Bush playing Topper Harley and prohibits families from allowing coverage of soldiers’ funerals decided Obama privately thanking our wounded warriors was too political. Please.  

              2. met with the same leaders McCain did. He also mingled with the troops and won them over. Laughing Boy just doesn’t want to admit it. McCain planned to give a campaign speech “to a bunch of foreigners” but the anticipated turnout was so low it would have been embarrassing, so he cancelled. but who needs the goodwill of our allies anyway?

            2. Obama Gave his speach to people.

              McCain speaks to his base: Multinational corporations

              Obama reminds people of the world why they used to respect us.

              I’ll take that comparison.

              Obama visited wounded troops in the middle east–In Germany the pentagon wouldn’t let Obama’s advisor Ret. Maj. Gen. Scott Grattion attend (reminds me of the state department memo to give no aid to Obama overseas while on his CODEL).  They manufactured a controversy by politicizing government agencies.  Kind of reminds me of the Bush appointed IG that released a report today saying that the AG’s office was illegally politicized.

              1. Campaign staff and photo ops aren’t allowed by the military.  Pretty cut-and-dried.

                The fact that he didn’t go anyway (even though he wouldn’t get a picture) speaks volumes to his priorities.

                1. The McCain campaign manufactured the cameras and photo-op excuse out of thin air and its minions do their job spreading the lie. You ought to be ashamed politicizing wounded soldiers, which is something Obama refused to do.

                  NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports that there was never a plan for Obama to take the press to Landstuhl, despite the claim by McCain folks and others. The plan was to go with his military aide, retired General Scott Gration. The Pentagon said Gration was off-limits because he had joined the campaign — violating rules that it not be a political stop.

                  Obama had gone to see wounded troops in Iraq earlier in the week, without even confirming he’d been there. No press, no pictures. He has done the same when he goes to Walter Reed — never any press.

                  1. Sorry, I saw the name “Olberman” and stopped reading.

                    Face it, Obama had planned on a publicity stop using wounded troops as a backdrop.  Once he was told he couldn’t bring campaign staffers and photogs, the need to go disappeared for him.

                    He’s running for office, after all.

                    1. He was going to bring Gration.

                      Gration was pissed when he was denied access.  As a retired General he had a right to be pissed.

                      It was just an example of the Bush administration politizing agencies of the government.

                      If you are going to argue that that hasn’t happened, I welcome that argument.

          2. to make such laughable statements.

            Go ahead and pretend that Obama didn’t vote for the GI Bill (oops that was McCain).  The pictures I saw of Obama and the troops showed a lot of smiles.  My guess is that Obama is going to get a bigger share of the military vote than Kerry.  A lot bigger even if you discount the number of minorities in the military.  McCain hasn’t got the youth military vote locked up at all.  The old geezer general vote maybe.

            “Ohhh the spin I’m in when I pretend that I know what I’m talking about.  It is enough to make me shout McVotedAgainstTheGIBill.  Oh what a thrill to shill for such a silly dill.  I love McCain as much as I do George Bush”.

  3. Create FUD around Udall

    Say/do nothing that explains you believe.

    Hope ticket splitters vote for Obama and split for him because he seems innocuous.

          1. See: Bob Schaffer

            For addl context: oil additive scams, defrauding US government, forced abortions, slave labor, destabilizing kurdish oil contracts, parasailing, Jack Abramoff, Mt. McKinley, etc. etc.

            Example:

            Can you believe this fucking unbelievable dickhole wants to be our next US Senator ?

            1. …….I’m beginning to believe that this dickhole (sic…don’t look, nana) actually exists!  Man the battlestations, woman down the hatches, there’s a FUD in our midst!  

  4.    There is nothing to by gained by him going to Minneapolis.  

      It’s going to be a morbid place with a RINO being nominated for the top of the ticket and the Shrub’s farewell address to the party faithful.  There may also be some sort of a ceremony at the Larry Craig stall at the Minneapolis airport remembering his illustrious (legislative?) career.  Maybe a rabid pep talk by Ann Coulter or Rush Limp-baugh.

      Not many promising photo ops at the GOP convention this year.  

    1. Though I can’t begin to live up that snark.

      Minneapolis won’t do much for Schaffer.  He’s not going to get prime time before a camera, won’t really gain the contacts and prestige that would help him win the race.  Why bother?

      1. He’s afraid to be tied to the neocon philospohy that he actually endorses.

        He would hate for the people of Colorado to realize that he wholeheartedly endorsed the rob the country blind policies of the GOP which have lead this country to the brink of depression.

  5. Who wants to take bets on how soon we’ll be seeing a big yellow Chicken following Schaffer around?

    He’s held private fundraisers with Bush, Cheney and McCain and now he’s completely hiding from the biggest Republican get together in the last 4 years.

    Spineless Schaffer.

    1. and a candidate that is embarrassed by his or her own party is plain screwed.  I hope Udall uses this fact that Shaffer is not going to Minneapolis.

      He was and is a staunch conservative Republican.  We was a state representative and a US congressman thanks to a great deal of help and support from his own party.  Now he’s hiding and running away from them. That dosen’t look good.    

  6. ….but he’s also sticking it to some of the core constituency groups in the GOP.  Remember the pissing match that B.S.’s master, Wadhams, got into a few months back with Steve Curtis and folks in the right-to-life movement?

      I’ll bet B.S. hasn’t even announced whether he supports Egg-As-Person proposed amendment yet!

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