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Three Big Things Democrats Have Avoided Talking About at DNC…

Sep. 6, 2012 7:47pm Jason Howerton

The 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton and the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama acknowledge the audience at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, 2012 on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The DNC is expected to nominate US President Barack Obama to run for a second term as president on September 6th. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheBlaze/AP) — They are the missing pages of a convention story line, ideas and initiatives once prominently featured in President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Climate change. Economic stimulus. The massive bank bailout known as TARP. The stimulus and the bailout remain politically poisonous while regulatory remedies for climate change have receded as a priority in a poor economy.

All three were central elements of either Obama’s last campaign or his first years in office. But at the Democratic National Convention, they don’t rate a mention, even as they complement some of the president’s top policy goals: shoring up the economy, reversing a financial crisis and achieving energy independence.

Those are the most obvious pieces wiped away from the Democrats’ image-making this week.

Some initial blank spots, however, were ultimately filled.

Convention delegates had to hurriedly insert references to God and Jerusalem in the party platform after their omission threatened to become politically explosive. Nudged by Obama, party officials pushed through a reference to workers and their “God-given potential” and restored language from the 2008 platform asserting that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Other issues weren’t given a second thought.

For a party that once declared a “war on poverty,” the poor received little mention. It took former President Bill Clinton to address the plight of the needy, not with a renewed call to help them but to decry Republican measures he said would hurt the poor and their children. There also was virtual silence on gun control, an issue that attracted attention after recent mass shootings across the country but has bedeviled Democrats since a 1994 crime bill many say cost them congressional seats.

Former US president Bill Clinton addresses the audience at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, 2012 on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The DNC is expected to nominate US President Barack Obama to run for a second term on September 6. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

There are faces absent from the picture as well. Conservative Democrats haven’t been prominent at the convention. Former vice president and presidential contender Al Gore has not been seen. Disgraced vice presidential candidate John Edwards, who represented North Carolina in the Senate, has stayed away.

And then there’s the attention to climate change, which has, well, changed.

The Democratic platform tempers its language on climate change, compared to the 2008 party document.

Four years ago, Democrats called climate change “the epochal, man-made threat to the planet.” The current platform takes it down a notch, referring to climate change as one “of the biggest threats of this generation – an economic, environmental and national security catastrophe in the making.”

Four years ago, the party called for a cap-and-trade system that would blend limits on pollutants with the ability for utilities and manufacturers to trade pollution allowances. The current platform approved Tuesday doesn’t mention cap-and-trade.

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney has criticized past Democratic efforts to adopt cap-and-trade, saying such a system would hurt the economy and drive away manufacturing jobs.

Convention speakers also have drawn attention to Obama’s efforts to expand sources of alternative energy. But the cap-and-trade plan that Obama failed to push through Congress is absent from the discussion. In written answers to questions posed by the scientific website Sciencedebate.org and posted this week, Obama sidestepped cap-and-trade while emphasizing his administration’s effort to limit car pollution and advance clean energy initiatives.

Asked about the absence of such a regulatory proposal, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said: “The country has evolved a little bit, particularly given the recession.” He cited Obama’s increase in mileage standards for automobiles as a key step toward addressing climate change.

When it came to the economy, a central question the convention sought to address was posed by Republicans: Are Americans better off than they were four years ago? After initially stumbling, the Democratic consensus was a resounding yes, that Obama had taken steps to halt the recession and put the economy on a slow but rising path.

Clinton made the case Wednesday night: “He put a floor under the crash. He began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good, new jobs, vibrant new businesses and lots of new wealth for innovators.”

But while the White House and many economists credit the $800 billion stimulus that Obama pushed through Congress in 2009 for helping to stem the crisis, the massive package is an afterthought at the convention. With the national debt crossing the $16 trillion threshold this week, massive spending measures are not issues to put up on the party’s marquee. If it takes more than a well-delivered sound bite to explain it, it’s best left unsaid.

Then there is TARP, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program initiated by President George W. Bush but completed and expanded by Obama. The bank bailout proved highly unpopular and, in 2010, politicians challenged Republican and Democratic members of Congress who voted for it.

While the administration and Wall Street credit the bailout for preventing a financial collapse, the issue is toxic.

“The TARP is a negative issue even though it probably did more to save us from the Great Depression than anything else,” Schumer said in an interview with The Associated Press.

That said, Democrats have been cheering Obama’s bailout of the auto industry, a $60 billion structured bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler that kept them alive and kept auto workers on the job in key political states like Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Where did that auto money come from? TARP. But you won’t hear that detail at the convention.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (31)

Banacek
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 9:16pm
“Asked about the absence of such a regulatory proposal, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said: “The country has evolved a little bit, particularly given the recession.” He cited Obama’s increase in mileage standards for automobiles as a key step toward addressing climate change.”

Unfortunately the way automakers will meet this standard is to continue making automobiles out of composite materials that do not withstand a crash impact like to previously constructed metal construction. This will lead to more and more deaths in motor vehicle accidents rather than improve engine efficiencies. But that’s OK with the Dems because they continue to receive funds for the petroleum industry lobbyists while complaining about the Industries record profits. Some more do as I say not as I do politics. Vote Romney/Ryan 2012!!!

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- BloodSweatandTears
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 10:25pm
  Greater mileage is another of their pipe dreams -bait and switch schemes.. We could have greater mile today -but then gas taxes would go down that are used to repair the roads, so it’ll never happen with the Big Government, high tax party. Think of the powerful oil lobby.
  
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woodyee
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 9:00pm
“For a party that once declared a “war on poverty,” the poor received little mention.”

That “war” was started in 1965 by president Lyndon B. Johnson. That “war” was a 5year program. That program is called Welfare, and your STILL paying for it today…

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cookcountypatriot
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:52pm
not to mention that progressives have infested all the hotels in charelotte with bed bugs…yucky people

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sparkyrules
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:50pm
“Where did that auto money come from? TARP. “And WHO benefited the most?The UAW.They could’nt deal with the thought of regular Bankruptcy,whereas a judge would have ordered CUTS to pay and benefits.So along comes Obama the Pied Piper from Washington to save the day.And once again the American taxpayer gets screwed to please a union..

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- wisehiney
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:52pm
  GM already needs another bailout. They are trying to make it to the election.
  
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- Stoic one
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 9:14pm
  and 79% of government motor’s sales since the beginning of this year: Fed directed purchases.
  
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BryanB
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:39pm
“Three Big Things Democrats Have Avoided Talking at the DNC”

1. President Obama Favorite Color

2. Joe Biden’s Really Bad Breath

3. The Outbreak of Anal Warts !!!!!

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- marybethelizabeth
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 10:02pm
  Exactly.
  
  All 3 issues that are in the article are being talked about at the Democratic Convention.
  
  Theblaze in not the truth
  
  Report this comment
- BryanB
  Posted on September 7, 2012 at 9:24am
  @marybethelizabeth
  
  I have to be real honest with you, I didn’t watch any of the DNC. It was one of those situations of, why bother. If you have heard one hate filled lie from the Democrates, you have heard them all.
  
  I have no more time for that……….
  
  Report this comment
Lordcsmith
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:36pm
You know, I haven’t seen one hipster laying in the street with his starbucks cup held high once since this guy was elected. What a juxtaposition of emotion i have conflicting me. The 8 years of constant protest and then dead silence after the annointed one’s election. Heck, I thought the war was over. but of course, the media is not in bed with this administration.

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sparkyrules
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:26pm
Not much mention about our fine USA Military members either.Still in that worthless crap hole called Afghanistan!The number of U.S. military members killed in the war in Afghanistan has surpassed 2,000, with MORE THAN HALF the DEATHS coming in the past 27 months!
On Feb. 27, 2009,Obama declared, “Let me say this as plainly as I can: By Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”

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PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:15pm
Three important pieces of information:

1. on youtube “The Unvetted” a must watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWKOhA9s7as
2. at gulag bound.com: What the media will never tell you about Obama, Part 2 (interesting read)
3. at gulag bound.com: Leftism, Obama and Ponerology; Human evil in political spheres (read)

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2MINUTESTOMIDNIGHT
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:14pm
The most prominent “big things” I have found missing from the DNC are truth, honesty and integrity.

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- kickagrandma
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:24pm
  Me, too. But the most important item missing is GOD.
  
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thibx
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:13pm
oboma- kick God out of country, approve of the queers, socialism, marxism, communism, cronnie business, green energy, approve unions, throw israel under bus. divide jerusalem, 1967 borders,run up debt, tax business, destroy our missles, give secrets to russia, put down america all over globe, approve muslim brotherhood, invite them to white house, get rid of word terrorism, try getmo in new york city,build tennis court at getmo, give money to brazil, to egypt, to pakastan, will not stand up for troops fighting in afganstan, uped welfare,no law in justice dept, selling guns to mexico, killing agents, shut down coal mines, shut down oil wells. this sob has a record.

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- UnsubtleSatire
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:15pm
  I agree down with the Muslim Brotherhood, up with the Mormon Brotherhood.
  
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- Honestybefore truth
  Posted on September 7, 2012 at 4:09am
  I would agree with half of your moniker, subtle your not. But Satire should at the very least be wryly humorous, you come off mostly as simple, simply stupid that is. The Muslim Brotherhood is more about eliminating religious competition (i.e. killing, intimidation, etc.) than actually preaching the their word. While I might find Mormons occasionally annoying (the dreaded knock on the door at the most in opportune time) the are hardly dangerous, nor synonymous with the type of tactics of the MB employ.
  
  Report this comment
kickagrandma
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:07pm
PRAY. PRAY now, BLAZERS.

Ask GOD for HIS INTERVENTION this very night.

Also, might not hurt to tell HIM you LOVE HIM and welcome HIM in your home and in your heart. I think that would be welcome news to THE ONE WHO MADE US ALL.

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- wisehiney
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:15pm
  I just pray for a fighting chance.
  
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wisehiney
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:07pm
You left one out, the fourth thing….that funky smell all around the convention.

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watersRpeople
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:04pm
It seems to me if President Bush can abandon the free market system to save it, then likewise Obama can abandon the election system to save it.

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watersRpeople
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:02pm
I still remember Bush gave us TARP, and that Bush had to abandon the free market system to save it.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:13pm
  Why, of course Bush made it up all by himself then signed it into law. That danged Dem-wit Congress had absolutely nothing to do with it, now did they?
  
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- Sirfoldallot
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:14pm
  Bush is more of ur progresive BS ideas u have, so embrace ur bush , nut job.
  
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- Chinishque
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 9:19pm
  That is why we shouldn’t vote for liberals (D or R) but seem to get stuck with them…I hope the new wave of Tea people will hold Romney’s feet to the fire.
  
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justangry
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:01pm
Of course both parties and the MEDIA are ignoring our rights and the wars. I guess that stuff isn’t important.

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- watersRpeople
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:05pm
  That’s why it doesn’t matter to me who becomes President.
  
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- Calm Voice of Reason
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:12pm
  Agreed. No mention of our policy of perpetual war in Romney’s speech, and I don’t expect to hear about it from Obama, either.
  
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watersRpeople
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 8:01pm
With all those Executive Order powers – what President could ever be worried about losing an election?

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UnsubtleSatire
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 7:50pm
Why no mention of Kolob in their platform?

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