Politics

Co-chair of Obama’s 2008 campaign to speak at RNC

Geoffrey Malloy Contributor
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Former Alabama Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, a co-chair of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, will speak at the GOP convention later this month, the Washington Post reports.

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Davis gave a seconding speech formally supporting Obama’s nomination. In his speech, Davis said he hoped Obama’s presidency would move the country to the center and improve race relations.

Davis represented Alabama’s 7th Congressional District from 2003 to 2011 as a Democrat, but switched political parties earlier this year.

Davis said he planned to make general disillusionment with President Obama a central theme of his convention speech.

In an August 6 column, Davis accused Obama of becoming a “Kerry/Dukakis like cultural liberal with a tin ear for Middle America.”

Davis has become a surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. In a CNN interview Wednesday, he blasted Vice President Biden for saying that Romney’s policies toward big banks would “put y’all back in chains.”

Biden was speaking to a crowd in Danville, Virginia.  About 40 percent of the crowd was African-American, according to news reports.

Davis sharply criticized Biden’s comments during a Wednesday CNN appearance, saying, “I happen to have spoken to a few African-American audiences in my time, represented a predominantly African-American district. I know what Joe Biden was doing yesterday, and every black person in the room knew who the ‘y’all’ was, they knew what the chains were about, and they knew what the metaphor was.”

“It brought back memories of these Democratic politicians in the South, who think they can go before crowds and say one thing and nobody else will hear it, and they’ll somehow get a cheer in the room and that they can blithely go on about their business,” Davis explained.

In the interview, Davis further commented, “It’s a divisive tactic that’s insulting to African-Americans. It’s insulting to the American people. It’s insulting to the legacy that he used to build-up as an orator who used to know how to inspire people instead of strike fear in people’s heart.”

Davis said that Obama should disavow Biden’s remarks.

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