Category Archives: U.Miami

Nelson makes a big pitch for early voting – warns people there is not voting the Sunday immediately before the election. Nelson acts as if he has a pulse; I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him animated before.

3:05 Nelson’s done. We have in interregnum. Meanwhile the seats are all filled. The crowd cheers and stands…but it’s too early…way too early….and we’re back to loud recorded music. Then …

To introduce the President of the United States please welcome Elizabeth [Bush?]. She introduces herself as a Freshman at UM (“I’ve been volunteering with Canes for Obama since my first week of school.”) She notes Obama’s efforts for Pell grants, to cut costs of student loans (and this is in my opinion a genuine Obama achievement, one Romney has criticized).

Early voting starts on October 27, or you can vote absentee.

“Miami, this election is a clear choice between a politician who doesn’t understand us and a President who does.”

and we’re off…

[Note:first two paragraphs got left out accidentally, were added later]

Field organizer asks people to take out their phones. Asks people to Text “GIVE” to 62262 and send $10. Or do a shift as a volunteer – text “FLORIDA” to 62262 to volunteer. Or download the Obama 2012 app.

The crowd likes it and shouts “Four More Years”.

Next is Debbie Wasserman Shultz. She makes a “U” — The crowd loves her. She’s beaming. (I’m still sore about not her not supporting Joe Garcia more energetically in 2008, but I’m an old grouch.) But she sure knows how to work the crowd. Her big line: this election, “it’s personal!” It’s about health care, about medicare for seniors, and for students. (Are there any hurricanes in the house? Gets “YAY” followed by chants of “FIU FIU FIU” then cross-booing … sounds almost ugly for a moment. But pro that she is, DWS gets them back on track – “we are all here on Team Obama”.

Meanwhile the folks behind me are clamoring for attention. I have a great photo but the local wireless is too congested for my phone to upload it.

Update – here it is:

Then it’s Senator Bill Nelson. He makes a “U” and the crowd loves it. I was born in Miami, and my dad was a member of the first law class at UM. We found an old photo … A quarter of that class were women in 1926!

On substance, Nelson is pretty good. He goes after Romney/Ryan for the “cuts to Medicare” lie. And for Romney’s abortion remarks “what has he said consistently throughout the campaign? Exactly the opposite.”

Team Obama came through with a press pass as part of their high-test blogger outreach, so (after a very very circuitous walk around the perimeter of the security cordon, I’m in the Bank United Center. The public is still filing in through the main entrance, but it looks to fill up.

Starting about 2:30 we had a brief Welcome, the Pledge of Allegiance, a highly nationalistic benediction. Now we’re having a folksy, crowd-pleasing talk from Florida field organizer which is becoming a call for volunteers.

How Romney Packed The Univision Forum:

Salinas told BuzzFeed that tickets for each forum were divided between the network, the respective campaigns, and the University of Miami (which hosted the events) — and she said both campaigns initially agreed to keep the audience comprised mostly of students, in keeping with the events’ education theme.

But after exhausting the few conservative groups on campus, the Romney camp realized there weren’t enough sympathetic students to fill the stands on their night — so they told the network and university that if they weren’t given an exemption to the students-only rule, they might have to “reschedule.”

The organizers relented. One Democrat with ties to the Obama campaign noted that Rudy Fernandez, the university official charged with coordinating the forums, is a member of Romney’s Hispanic steering committee. Fernandez did not respond to BuzzFeed’s questions about whether he gave preferential treatment to Romney’s campaign.

In any case, Romney’s team was allowed to bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall.

Obama’s campaign, meanwhile, stuck to the original parameters and allowed a large chunk of the tickets to be distributed to interested students on campus. The result was a quiet, well-behaved crowd — and a lot of no-shows. Minutes before Obama’s forum was to begin, producers began frantically directing university staff and volunteers to sit in the empty seats.

From a national campaign view, should we understand this as an example of the Romney campaign’s superior tactical skill, as showing Team Obama’s greater honesty, or both?

From a local perspective, I think Mr. Rudy Fernandez, or whoever else was in charge, should be willing to answer reasonable questions from the press about the logistics and whether the University was even-handed or not.

(And I guess I should have gone to see Obama even though Univision wouldn’t give me a press pass.)

No word yet from the Romney people about press credentials. UM says to ask Univision. They don’t answer their e-mail. I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Meanwhile, I got this notice about a Romney welcoming party:

Are you lazy?  Do you want to be dependent on the government? 

Mitt Romney thinks so.  That is what he told his rich donors last year at a fundraiser.  Today, the man who wants to be President will be at the University of Miami to talk to the 47% of Americans he apparently doesn’t want to worry about.  He will be talking to Univision live.  Will you join us?

 

4:30pm today-UMiami’s Bank United Center Field House

 

Contrary to Gov. Romney’s belief that the 47-percenters think they are victims, we are actually hard-working families who pay their fair share through local, state and payroll taxes. Next door to the Bank United Center at the Field House, the 47-percenters will make sure that Mitt Romey knows that he can’t  write off nearly half of the American population.Will you join us?

 

Protest of Mitt Romney and his backward policies
 4:30 PM Wednesday, September 19
Bank United Center – Field House
1245 Dauer Drive
Coral Gables, FL 33146

Interesting article in The Miami Hurricane, the UM student newspaper: Lottery for Romney, Obama events causes controversy.

Students were originally promised a lottery for a portion of the seats for Mitt Romney’s Univision interview here tomorrow. It seems, though, that all of the very small number of tickets will be distributed by various, mostly friendly, groups. The student journalists were not able to pin down who ordered the change — the Romney campaign or Univision.

On Friday, the Division of Student Affairs sent an email to students who entered the lottery for Gov. Romney’s event on Wednesday, informing them that there would no longer be a lottery to distribute tickets to the event.

The event, as per the Romney campaign’s request, was only open to members of the UM College Republicans and presidents of certain organizations, such as the Federacion de Estudiantes Cubanos (the Federation of Cuban Students, known as FEC) and SpectrUM, the LGBT student organization on campus. FEC, for instance, will receive nine tickets for its entire executive board.

Though the local Romney office and the Florida communications director for the campaign were given the opportunity to comment on the campaign’s decision, they did not respond to phone calls and emails.

Of the 750 total tickets, UM was originally given roughly 400, with 99 percent of those tickets going to students, according to Rudy Fernandez, vice president for government affairs. Student Affairs has been responsible for distributing the tickets according to the rules imposed by each campaign and by Univision, who rented the BankUnited Center Fieldhouse where the events will be held.

The same room is being used for the Obama event, but the Hurricane reports that the student lottery for some of the tickets to that event is still going forward.

Update (9/19/12): Huffington Post has loads more details, and says both campaigns are basically doing the same thing.