Charlotte Looking Like Worse and Worse DNC Pick

It's home to Bank of America and a high unemployment rate
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2012 1:00 AM CDT
'Tude Getting Dem Ugly in N. Carolina
Seth Keel is consoled by his boyfriend and mom as North Carolina's gay marriage ban wins early this month. State positions seem increasingly at odds with the White House just as the convention nears.   (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Travis Long)

The Democratic National Convention could be meeting on enemy territory come September. The state that flipped for Barack Obama last election, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in more than 30 years, is increasingly at odds with the White House. North Carolina just banned gay marriage, only weeks before Obama came out in favor of it, triggering a petition from a gay rights group to move the convention. Conventioneers are also certain to face heated protests from union members angry the event is being held in an anti-union "right-to-work" state, and from the jobless in a state where the unemployment rate is above the national average, notes the Daily Beast.

Obama's remaining hope to woo the state may be to beat the populist gong, say observers. “If Obama can strategically place himself as the anti-Wall Street candidate, then that far exceeds the gay question,” Democratic strategist Dave Saunders tell the Beast. But the convention is also inconveniently being held in Charlotte, the world headquarters of Bank of America, which will also be a lightning rod for protests. Obama will be giving his acceptance speech, cringingly, in the Bank of America Stadium. “When North Carolina was picked, it was an excellent choice,” says one election expert. Now Democrats are loath to "admit the state is already gone, but it probably is." (More North Carolina stories.)

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