Friday, August 17, 2012

City Club preps for presidents

Sounds like Bank of America Stadium may not be the only Charlotte locale President Barack Obama will frequent during convention week.

Apparently, 44is also scheduled to attend one of the 60 private parties set for the Charlotte City Club.

In a letter to 1,000 members, club president David Page wrote that the “many important dignitaries” planning to visit the exclusive uptown club during the DNC included “the President, Past Presidents, Former Secretary of State and Governors.”

We wanted to make sure our eyes weren’t lyin’, so we called Club GM John Scharer.

“He is supposed to be in attendance at one of the events, if his schedule allows,” Scharer said of POTUS. “Based on some of the hosts, they’re expecting him to be here.”

Scharer was mum about the actual event as well as the day and time. We do know that Obama is skedded to give his acceptance speech Sept. 6 on the 50-yard line at BofA Stadium.

Sharer told us the City Club is also planning to serve ex-Pres Bill Clinton and his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

And though 87-year-old Jimmy Carter has announced he won’t be coming to Charlotte, Sharer told us the Georgia delegation is hosting an event to honor the 39th president. “He may or may not be there,” the GM said.

In his letter, Page informed members – they own the 65-year-old private club at Trade and Tryon – that member dining would be limited to one room Sept. 4-6. And no breakfast will be served convention week.

But the good news: “We expect September 2012 to be one of the best financial months in Club history,” Page wrote.

The City Club will be just outside the security perimeter. Still, we’re told club officials have met with the Secret Service, U.S. m0arshals and other security folks. And Page said in his letter that the decision to limit member dining to the Presidents Room was based on “feedback from many members of their intent to avoid downtown during this time.”

--Tim Funk

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the editor drunk?

Anonymous said...

Didnt the DNC scale this thing down to only 3 days now and advise many biggies to not bother to show up and stay home?

Will Obama recuse himself too and be a no show? Talk about throwing a party and nobody shows up?

This things already a major dud but then again after the Bobcats worst season in NBA history in this same arena its def no shocker ...

The DNC may return in 250 yrs if they lucky.

Anonymous said...

We had our DNC prep talk at Duke Energy last Friday. I feel a little bad for Moria Quinn, who is running around uptown making speeches encouraging people to take part in the festivities. It's a lost cause. I only know 1 or 2 people who will be anywhere near uptown that week. Quinn said, "security for the DNC is like security at the airport. It's there to keep you safe, not keep you out." She should have tried a different analogy. The Federal agents at airport security checkpoints are some of the most cruel human beings on Earth. That only reinforced the perception in my mind that every intersection inside 277 will have Feds conducting body cavity searches of everyone who comes through. I'm taking vacation that week and staying away. The President, delegates, and other people conducting Dem Party business are going to have uptown all to themselves. So if the President has been invited to the City Club, by all means, he should go. It won't be too crowded.