Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Empty Chair


                    The Democrats held their National Convention last week in Charlotte, North Carolina and had a difficult time filling their venue.  In fact, Daily Mail reported that the Obama campaign worked hard to make sure that the 74,000 seats of the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina would be filled; they arranged for students to be bused from all across North Carolina and also for members of black churches to be bused from South Carolina.  There were even reports that people were being paid to attend the convention.  To avoid the danger of Barack Obama accepting the nomination of his party before rows of empty seats, the Democrats moved the convention to an indoor arena with only 20,000 seats.

                    The Republicans held their National Convention the previous week in Tampa, Florida.  The program included a performance by actor Clint Eastwood talking with an empty chair that represented Barack Obama.  Political commentaries were all about how Eastwood had made a fool of himself.  Conservatives and liberals had mixed reactions to the performance, but a movement started with the unofficial title of "eastwooding". 

                    In spite of the many different reactions to Eastwood's speech, the empty chair has endured as a political image of President Obama.  Conservative tweeters decided that Labor Day should become "Empty Chair Day." I did not personally put an empty chair on my porch due to the heavy rain, but I did enjoy seeing the many pictures.  I expect to see many more pictures of empty chairs but wanted to share some of the ones already out.

                    The Blaze chose the "five best" pictures of empty chairs. I saw many others pictures that I also liked.  You can see them here, 
here, and here.  My favorite picture is of a helicopter with servicemen hanging an empty chair out the open door, but for some reason I could not link to it.

                    

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