Tweet
CHICAGO SHOCKER: No Obama victory party being planned for Grant Park this time
HillBuzz
Kevin DuJan
10/9/2012
Excerpt:
I’m chasing this story today because the other night I had dinner with some friends here in Chicago, one of whom works for the City’s Parks District department; he told me that he’s seen absolutely no requests for permits or other preparations for any sort of “Obama victory party” in Grant Park this year…unlike “all the fuss they made last time”. You remember THAT event: people held signs that said “Yes We Did!”, Oprah blubbered like a baby, Michelle wore a dress that looked like a black widow spider costume, and the Left declared permanent victory over America (which seems to have only lasted four years).
When I first moved to Chicago I freelanced a lot as an event planner and worked with the City on a number of projects. It is a time-consuming and difficult process because of public safety issues. I actually event-planned three big public events in my day: a fashion show, the dedication of a big piece of public art, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a fitness facility. The Mayor was all at the events, along with other dignitaries, and all were open to the public which required a lot of planning and nonstop meetings with sound, staging, and other vendors. Then there was the electricians’ union, the Parks department itself, and honestly close to 50 or 60 other various individuals who had to sign off on this or that to make even small-scale events like mine happen in this City.
I’m staggered just thinking of the time and effort it took to stage the monstrous Obama 2008 “Vicrtory Party” that was held in Grant Park four years ago. I spent that election night with a young Republicans group in a big hotel suite they had for the evening, overlooking the park and the throngs of Obama cultists who came to worship “The One”. There were police everywhere, a massive stage, spotlights, and tons of media. As an event planner, I could tell this took someone months to prepare; this did not get thrown together overnight and the City would not have assumed the liability of allowing it to happen unless all the plans went through the Byzantine planning process in the puzzle palace that is City Hall.
I followed up on the tip from my Parks District friend and checked with the audio and electrical vendors I still know in the City and none of them have been contacted to provide equipment to an Obama “victory party” this year. I also checked into whether Grant Park could still be booked for anything on November 6th and didn’t get hung up on or automatically told that “it’s reserved for the Obama rally”. No mention of Obama was made and instead I was referred to the website where the permitting requests are and how someone goes about looking to have an event in the park. The way Chicago works, the brassy Parks District employee answering the phone would have most likely told me “you’re nuts, the Obama rally is that night” if indeed a big Grant Park “victory event” was being planned for Obama in Chicago like the one in 2008.
I emailed a few people I know in the donor community here in Chicago and found out an outdoor event is most likely not being planned and instead Obama’s “election night event” will most likely be held at one of the hotels in downtown Chicago. Chances are good it will held in one of the Hyatts downtown, since Penny Pritzker (the woman who is leading the effort to fundraise for the Obamas’ retirement home in Hawaii and the Obama presidential library, museum, and Center for Social Justice) is part of the clan that owned the Hyatt chain (and might still, if they have not divested themselves from that company as the family continues to liquidate its assets).
Let’s remind ourselves that the Obama convention speech in Charlotte was a much-scaled down version of the grandiose oration he delivered in a styrofoam Greek temple in Denver four years earlier.
Is it no surprise that Obama’s being downgraded from a giant cult rally in Grant Park in Chicago to a tepid speech in a ballroom (where people have their weddings) in some hotel in the Loop?
.............................................
View the complete article at:
http://hillbuzz.org/chicago-shocker-...his-time-77306
HillBuzz
Kevin DuJan
10/9/2012
Excerpt:
I’m chasing this story today because the other night I had dinner with some friends here in Chicago, one of whom works for the City’s Parks District department; he told me that he’s seen absolutely no requests for permits or other preparations for any sort of “Obama victory party” in Grant Park this year…unlike “all the fuss they made last time”. You remember THAT event: people held signs that said “Yes We Did!”, Oprah blubbered like a baby, Michelle wore a dress that looked like a black widow spider costume, and the Left declared permanent victory over America (which seems to have only lasted four years).
When I first moved to Chicago I freelanced a lot as an event planner and worked with the City on a number of projects. It is a time-consuming and difficult process because of public safety issues. I actually event-planned three big public events in my day: a fashion show, the dedication of a big piece of public art, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a fitness facility. The Mayor was all at the events, along with other dignitaries, and all were open to the public which required a lot of planning and nonstop meetings with sound, staging, and other vendors. Then there was the electricians’ union, the Parks department itself, and honestly close to 50 or 60 other various individuals who had to sign off on this or that to make even small-scale events like mine happen in this City.
I’m staggered just thinking of the time and effort it took to stage the monstrous Obama 2008 “Vicrtory Party” that was held in Grant Park four years ago. I spent that election night with a young Republicans group in a big hotel suite they had for the evening, overlooking the park and the throngs of Obama cultists who came to worship “The One”. There were police everywhere, a massive stage, spotlights, and tons of media. As an event planner, I could tell this took someone months to prepare; this did not get thrown together overnight and the City would not have assumed the liability of allowing it to happen unless all the plans went through the Byzantine planning process in the puzzle palace that is City Hall.
I followed up on the tip from my Parks District friend and checked with the audio and electrical vendors I still know in the City and none of them have been contacted to provide equipment to an Obama “victory party” this year. I also checked into whether Grant Park could still be booked for anything on November 6th and didn’t get hung up on or automatically told that “it’s reserved for the Obama rally”. No mention of Obama was made and instead I was referred to the website where the permitting requests are and how someone goes about looking to have an event in the park. The way Chicago works, the brassy Parks District employee answering the phone would have most likely told me “you’re nuts, the Obama rally is that night” if indeed a big Grant Park “victory event” was being planned for Obama in Chicago like the one in 2008.
I emailed a few people I know in the donor community here in Chicago and found out an outdoor event is most likely not being planned and instead Obama’s “election night event” will most likely be held at one of the hotels in downtown Chicago. Chances are good it will held in one of the Hyatts downtown, since Penny Pritzker (the woman who is leading the effort to fundraise for the Obamas’ retirement home in Hawaii and the Obama presidential library, museum, and Center for Social Justice) is part of the clan that owned the Hyatt chain (and might still, if they have not divested themselves from that company as the family continues to liquidate its assets).
Let’s remind ourselves that the Obama convention speech in Charlotte was a much-scaled down version of the grandiose oration he delivered in a styrofoam Greek temple in Denver four years earlier.
Is it no surprise that Obama’s being downgraded from a giant cult rally in Grant Park in Chicago to a tepid speech in a ballroom (where people have their weddings) in some hotel in the Loop?
.............................................
View the complete article at:
http://hillbuzz.org/chicago-shocker-...his-time-77306