Historical Question about Campaign Appearances (no debate!)

[missypie]

It is well publicized that the President's campaign appearances are by invitation only, and that only supporters are invited. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is this common for an incumbent president running for reelection? Has this been done before, or is Bush the first? Is this for security reasons? I know that there have always been high dollar fund raisers that were by invitation only, but haven't there also always been events where the "masses" could see the candidate?

2. How is it campaigning if everyone in the room is already voting for you? I assume that the purpose is so that it plays well to the local media...folks who weren't there see the event covered on local TV, with cheers after every statement. I guess that's a pretty smart use of the media, but it sure limits the number of people who ever get to see the candidates in person.

Please no political debates...does anyone know the answers historically?

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Good questions. My guess would be that, decades ago before television and radio, the campaign appearances were wide open and anyone could attend. How else would the voters be able to see or hear the candidates? Yeah, they could read about it in the newspapers or word of mouth, but listening to and seeing the candidate is different than reading about them.

Of course, this was well before Kennedy was shot and way before 9/11, plus the atmosphere in politics the past few years has been fairly heated. I'm sure a good amount of security concern goes into having an invitation-only event. There are a number of nutcases out there and you just don't know when one is going to act.

 

[tar heel]

Confession time: I went to a Gerald Ford rally in 1976! It was at a high school gymnasium in a small town, and EVERYONE went including people who were not planning to vote for him. Security was very minimal. I also saw an appearance by third party candidate John Anderson in 1980. It was on a college campus, and students and locals were let in until the building was full. When I worked at UNC Chapel Hill, Jimmy Carter who was the most recent former president, spoke. Security was a bit tighter -- news media had to turn in the names of people attending in advance, for example.

Bush's "women's issues town meeting" recently in Charlotte (He was actually in town for a multimillion $ fundraiser) was very different. The audience was made up of people who are his supporters. No signs were allowed to be carried in, but many signs were given out at the event, which is why you see a bunch of women all holding signs alike behind him in the audience. A local volunteer actually said on a conservative radio station that people should not wear layered clothes b/c they might ask them to remove the outer layers to make sure there wasn't an anit-Bush T-shirt underneath.

Since this group was already committed, I can only assume the reason to do these events is to get TV coverage. Ironically, Bush would have gotten much better coverage if he had cancelled this show and traveled a few miles to the North Carolina mountains where there had just been devasting damage and loss of life b/c of flooding from the hurricane. He would have been seen as the concerned, sympathetic president who believed those hurting people were more important than campaigning, while still being able to get back to the city for the fundraiser. As it was, the TV news programs put him on about 10 minutes into the news casts and only briefly b/c the flood was the bigger story.

I used Bush's appearance as an example b/c I heard the radio discussion. Also, I had flipped channels that evening to see how the TV news folks played it. The newspaper put both Bush and the flood above the fold on the front.

 

[bsnyder]

I'm not sure if "invitation only" is the right word for some of these campaign appearances.

My understanding is that for many (all?) of them, you have to get a ticket from the local GOP or campaign headquarters. The tickets are usually "first come, first serve" and there's no charge for them.

This was also true before Bush was President, during the 2000 campaign. He made several stops in Tampa and we had to get tickets to both events. I also remember no signs being allowed at these events (they were both indoors).

Also during the 2000 campaign, Al Gore had a rally in a public park in downtown Tampa. They put up a temporary fence around the park (it's normally not fenced) and while anyone could enter the fenced area, you couldn't bring any signs in with you. I know, because I tried to enter with my Bush sign and was told no signs allowed.

 

[missypie]

Funny you mentioned the '76 campaign. In '76, one of the vice presidential candidates spent the night in the same dorm that my boyfriend lived in at University of Illinois and went through the food service line for dinner. (Can't remember whether it was Mondale or Dole, but I'm assuming Mondale.) I just can't imagine a candidate doing something like that now.

 

[NMAmy]

Dick Cheney had an invitation only "roundtable" discussion at a restaurant here in Lansing. 12 people were allowed to ask questions. These people were party loyalists.

The city paid for extra security for the location. Many are up in arms about this event because the city is so strapped for cash and no one was allowed to speak to the Vice-President about the issues unless they were pre-approved.