The Candidate of “Change” Likely To Change His Message for Conservative Audience

NASHVILLE, TN – A day after being selected by superdelegates to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, Barack Obama visits Bristol, Va., for a town hall meeting that is a ticket-only event with Obama-friendly organizations controlling who gets tickets - meaning the Obama campaign is controlling access to the event in order to ensure a friendly crowd.

This elitist approach is in stark contrast to Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s recent Town Hall Meeting in Nashville, which was open to the public and at which McCain cheerfully answered several questions from obvious Democrat partisans.

“We can’t help but notice the contrast – John McCain holds an open town hall meeting in the middle of one of Tennessee’s most Democratic counties, while Barack Obama decides he doesn’t want to risk getting hard questions from non-supporters in a very conservative areas,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party. “While Obama talks about unity and reaching across partisan lines, John McCain is the one who has been doing it.”

Bristol, Va., is just across the border from Bristol, Tennessee.

“Sen. Obama’s campaign signs shout ‘Change,’ but we bet the message of change that voters in southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee hear from Obama today is a message in which Sen. Obama has changed his standard stump speech to avoid mentioning things like his support for gun control, his commitment to use his presidency as a bully pulpit for ‘gay rights’ and his promise to reduce the take-home pay of workers by raising their taxes, to name a few,” said Robin Smith, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party.