Scrambling is going on to get guests into Time Warner Cable Arena for what’s going to be a packed house this evening for President Obama’s acceptance speech. Lots of folks are in town who would have been easy to accommodate in the original stadium setting. Not so in the arena.
Today’s final breakfast for the Arkansas delegation, all fired up by the successful Bill Clinton speech of Wednesday night, was headlined by Governor Mike Beebe who urged Arkansas delegates and guests to bring their enthusiasm from Charlotte to help move the swing voters who will decide control of the Arkansas legislature. Beebe highlighted the impact on education funding in the state if the GOP is in control, raising the spectre of threats to the constitutionality of the state school system if cuts were made.
The final guest was Clinton friend and past/future Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe who jokingly described his friendship with the Clintons as “the most expensive” of his life; McAuliffe chaired fundraising efforts for the 1996 reelection campaign and the subsequent inauguration as well as the Clinton Library. McAuliffe noted his deep fondness for Arkansas in a short talk that reiterated the themes of Clinton’s Wednesday lengthier speech.