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Sunday, May 26, 2013 | 4:28 a.m.

Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider

Posted: 3:37 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008

Democrats And Talk Radio 

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By Jamie Dupree

I don't have any smoking gun evidence, but from two days of observation, it sure seems like most Democrats have decided to avoid talk radio shows broadcasting from the Pepsi Center here at the Democratic National Convention.

Four years ago in Boston, Democratic lawmakers and strategists weren't acting like talk radio was taboo, as they went on all kinds of radio shows during the 2004 convention.

I remember former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe making the rounds.  All kinds of Democratic lawmakers from the Congress were there too.

Jesse Jackson stopped by to talk to Neal Boortz.  Senator Dianne Feinstein of California.  Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, Florida was there.  And many others.

This year, I've been over in the radio talk show area two straight days and have seen only a trickle of lawmakers.  None of them would be described as big shots.

A longtime friend of mine who works for ABC Radio said the Democrats had offered his stations that were broadcasting live in Denver next to nothing in terms of interesting guests.

"They offered me two WWE wrestlers that I had never heard of," he said.  "They offered me a rabbi to talk about Jewish-Black relations."

Former President Jimmy Carter did make the rounds this morning, but that was about it.  When I was with Boortz on Tuesday, I saw three lawmakers, Loretta Sanchez of California, Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Carolyn Maloney of New York.

If you know any of them, then you get a gold star, because most people wouldn't be able to pick them out of a police lineup.

There seemed to be few, if any Democratic strategists making the rounds.  In fact, some of the most popular people were other journalists.  John King of CNN was there today and I saw Ted Koppel around on Monday.

I guess Democrats have decided that silence on more conservative talk radio shows is the way to go.

Is there a de facto boycott of talk radio going on here in Denver?  I can't say that.  But I still don't understand why you wouldn't want to at least go on air with someone and have a debate about issues, etc.

You never know, you might convince one of the listeners to Hannity, Boortz and Limbaugh to vote Democratic.

One person is definitely missing from the talk show arena, and that's Al Franken.  Four years ago, Franken was defiantly broadcasting his own more liberal program, trying to get in the face of his more established conservative brethern.

In 2008, he is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota.  He must not be here, or else we would have certainly heard about it by now. 

 
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