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September 29, 2015 02:38 PM UTC

CU GOP Prez Debate Limited Seating Liability Grows

  • 22 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Rep. Jared Polis.
Rep. Jared Polis.

As the Boulder Daily Camera’s Sarah Kuta reports, Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder has joined the growing dogpile of complaints over the highly limited seating available to University of Colorado students at next month’s on-campus Republican presidential debate:

Congressman Jared Polis on Monday called the limited number of seats available at the Republican presidential debate being held at the University of Colorado next month “insulting” and urged debate organizers to make more room for CU students…

The debate venue, the Coors Event Center, can hold more than 10,000 people. Last week, a university spokesman said the limited seating is due to the setup of the stage, lighting and camera equipment.

In his letter to CU, CNBC, and GOP officials, Rep. Polis makes clear that he finds that excuse as laughable as we did:

This isn’t about politics – whether you’re right, left, or center, if you’re a member of the University community you should have every opportunity to meaningfully participate in one of the biggest political debates of the past four years. That’s why I’m urging you to work closely with the RNC and CNBC to allocate drastically more tickets for the University community. I know this is something the University is capable of, as demonstrated in 2012 when your campus hosted a campaign rally for President Obama that was attended by more than 13,000 students and community members.

I’m no expert, but I’ve never seen video cameras so big that it requires taking up thousands of seats in an arena to get good shots from multiple angles. [Pols emphasis]

7NEWS ran a story (video after the jump) about CU students organizing to demand more seating be opened up in the mostly-empty Coors Events Center–this coming after the CU student government passed a resolution last Thursday calling for a “drastic” increase in tickets made available to CU students:

A group of students have formed an online social media campaign called ‘Student Voices Count,’ with the intention of pushing for more student representation.

“This event was initially announced as a really good opportunity for students to be involved in something huge and as it turns out, we’re not,” said Julian Taranow, who is part of the movement.

Students tell 7NEWS they are puzzled why the Republican Party would hold a debate on a college campus and then not connect with the students.

As we fully expected and predicted weeks ago, this situation is rapidly deteriorating for both CU and the Republican Party. Where hosting a GOP presidential debate in the liberal stronghold of Boulder, Colorado might have seemed in a brainstorming meeting to be a stroke of genius, today it increasingly looks like a fool’s errand. Lurking just beneath the excuses is an obvious fact that no one can deny: the current slate of Republican presidential candidates are highly unlikely to resonate with the average CU student. The problem isn’t with the students, either, though your state of denial view about that may vary on partisan lines.

The problem is with the candidates. The problem is Jeb! Bush telling voters that black people vote to get “free stuff.” The problem is Ben Carson saying a Muslim can’t be President. The problem is Carly Fiorina making crazy stories up about harvesting live fetal brains. The problem is…well, more or less everything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth.

Attempting to benefit from CU’s reputation as a leading center of scholarship while simultaneously preventing GOP presidential candidates from getting close enough to the CU student body to offend them may never have been a workable proposition. We have to attribute some of that hubris to longtime GOP kingpin and CU President Bruce Benson personally, given Benson’s near-obsession with fostering a “politically inclusive” climate at CU. It’s not much of a stretch from Benson’s eager foisting of a “visiting conservative scholar” on the university, which if you didn’t hear ended rather badly, to imagining that this clown car of GOP presidential candidates could come to CU and not face major embarrassment. Especially when you have to essentially hide them from the student body.

At this point, the damage from the story of excluding CU students from this debate is at real risk of overshadowing the debate itself. If this continues, by the day of the debate we expect a very large and news-cycle captivating protest outside the Coors Events Center. If we were in a decision-making position at the Republican National Committee, we would honestly consider throwing open the doors and filling this arena with every student who wants to be there. If there is any chance of a reasonable Republican presidential candidate emerging from this pack, there’s an argument that a crowd of non-GOP party faithful is better equipped to recognize and respond to that than a hand-picked conservative audience.

Unless, of course, nobody wants that. In which case maybe this is a train wreck that can’t be stopped.

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22 thoughts on “CU GOP Prez Debate Limited Seating Liability Grows”

  1. As usual Colorado Pols is completely back-asswards. The image problem will be for the left, when thousands of stoned hippie CU students try to disrupt a nationally televised event. No reasonable person is going to say CNBC can't set up the venue for broadcast the way they want. The RNC is being more than generous by DOUBLING the number of tickets for CU students from the original number.

    Sorry, but you don't get to make a left-wing spectacle on the RNC's dime. And you have no right to ask for that.

          1. Moddy and the Republicans are afraid, very afraid of these prescient words from John Lennon:

            Just Gimme Some Truth Lyrics

            "Just Gimme Some Truth" was written by Lennon, John.

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            I'm sick and tired of hearing things
            From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
            All I want is the truth
            Just gimme some truth
            I've had enough of reading things
            By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
            All I want is the truth
            Just gimme some truth

            No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
            Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
            With just a pocketful of hope
            Money for dope
            Money for rope

            No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
            Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
            With just a pocketful of soap
            Money for dope
            Money for rope

            I'm sick to death of seeing things
            From tight-lipped, condescending, mama's little chauvinists
            All I want is the truth
            Just gimme some truth now

            I've had enough of watching scenes
            Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
            All I want is the truth now
            Just gimme some truth

            No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
            Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
            With just a pocketful of soap
            It's money for dope
            Money for rope

            Ah, I'm sick and tired of hearing things
            From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
            All I want is the truth now
            Just gimme some truth now

            I've had enough of reading things
            By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
            All I want is the truth now
            Just gimme some truth now

            All I want is the truth now
            Just gimme some truth now
            All I want is the truth
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            Read more: John Lennon – Just Gimme Some Truth Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

        4. Sez the king of ad hominem attacks.  "Thousands of stoned hippie CU students."  Sounds like the RNC is scared, but then, fear is the currency for that lot.

    2. thousands of stoned hippie CU students

      Jeez, Moddy, you sound like you're channeling Spiro Agnew from 45 years ago. What were you, fossilized circa 1970?

      Besides, who should be more embarrassed: the stoned CU hippies or the clowns on stage?

      No one is going to upstage the spectacle that the RNC will be presenting on stage.

      1. Especially if they have pretty girls riding around on elephants in the ring and have the candidates jump through flaming hoops!

        Can't wait for the grand entrance when they all jump out of the clown car on stage.

    3. Oh, I think we do have that right, Modster. See Constitution, amendment numero uno. I know that it isn't your favorite amendment, but if CU and the RNC don't open up the venue to students, they will be exercising that amendment outside , loudly and spectacularly.

      Say, Jonathan Lockwood, how's that Republican millenial outreach going? Don't really trust those under-30s when they're off the Genop ranch, do ya?

  2. If enough "stoned hippie CU students" turn up, do you think some of the candidates might get enough of a contact high to go off-script and "misspeak" since we all know what that really means?

    1. Perhaps some geeky students can hack the Jumbotron feed, and add some cute "Pants on fire" , "Pinocchio Growing Nose", and "Lie O'meter" animations on banners for the different speakers.

      Really, RNC. You would be so much better off just opening the debates up to the students whose venue you are renting. Jonathan Lockwood swears that they all really want to vote Republican, if you just give them a chance.

  5. They're just scared of getting constantly booed after every GOP "response"(if you can call the blather that tumbles out of their mouths a response).

    If the CU students were smart, they'd pose as young repubs in order to get in, then troll the event.

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