What No One Wants to Talk About at the Convention
Failed assassination plot provokes media question

By Randy Stelly and Carol Forsloff

The tag team of Randy Stelly and Carol Forsloff of The Real Views is helping its media outlet and New American Media cover sideline events at the DNC in creative ways. Randy Stelly is now in Denver and has worked tirelessly helping to get ethnic media participants from NAM, to and from different events while his partner, Forsloff, handles day-to-day newspaper reporting and editing from Natchitoches and dispatches material to it directly from Stelly.

The topic folks avoid, either because it’s too awful to comprehend, or because their minds and hearts resist it, was a question asked during a teleconference with Charles Ogletree, Harvard University Professor and member of the African American Leadership Council, Flo McAfee, Senior Special Media Advisor, and Rick Wade, Senior Advisor, Obama for America held on Tuesday, August 26 at the Democratic Party convention.

That was a question asked about the failed assassination attempt on Barack Obama intercepted by both Federal and State security personnel. Wade was asked specifically about it and the potential for an attack on Obama either during the time of the Convention or during the subsequent campaign. Wade talked about tight security in Denver but didn’t want to go further with the question asked by one of the media participants. That response likely reflects not just the Obama conference leadership but members of the media as well, even though one correspondent was willing to ask the question head-on.

Before handling questions, including the one about assassination concerns, Wade, McAfee and Ogletree reviewed the highlights of Democratic Party Convention activities including caucus groups and special sessions where folks will discuss issues related to energy, health care, and other key concerns. Train the trainer programs are being scheduled, and introductory sessions initiated during Convention periods. Am emphasis of training is to get people out to vote. Wednesday’s schedule included an African American caucus focusing specifically on outreach.

Thursday, August 28, will be the closing day of the Convention but also the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington that took place in 1963. It will begin with a prayer breakfast commemorating that event as a prelude to the rest of the day’s activities, leading to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech as the official candidate of the Democratic Party for the President of the United States.

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