No Such Thing As A Free Obama Rally Ticket

Submitted for your review.

DENVER -- The Obama campaign has begyn notifying people who got tickets for the big acceptance speech at Invesco Field the final night of the convention.Many of those who received tickets told 7NEWS they have come with a caveat.Those viewers said the campaign told them they must volunteer six hours for the campaign by Friday in order to get a ticket.

"I got a call that if I want the tickets I have to volunteer two shifts of three hours apiece -- for one ticket. If I want two tickets, then it's four shifts of two hours apiece," said Berenice Christensen.Another 7NEWS viewer sent an e-mail that said, "I received a call Monday saying I could 'qualify' for the tickets if I do 12 hours of volunteer work for the Obama campaign between now and Friday the 15th."The viewer e-mail goes on, "To work 40 hours at my job, get to and from work, get to and from the campaign office and complete the 12 hours in three days would be next to impossible."

A Breckenridge resident e-mail 7NEWS with a similar experience:"My experience matches what you are hearing from other sources. Because of my work schedule and other activities going on, I did not sign up for the All Star tickets. But I was called by the campaign and told that I had to volunteer this week in order to get tickets at all. I finally agreed to one three-hour shift, but it left a bad impression for this lifelong Democrat. I hope someone in the campaign understands that they are turning off volunteers with their aggressive and disorganized approach," the Breckenridge resident wrote.Susan M. Martinez, from Boulder, Colo., wrote us to say, "There is no way I can volunteer between now and Friday (if that is the timeframe). I think I entered my name for consideration early. I entered my name within 5 minutes of the 'Breaking News' message appearing in my e-mail from TheDenverChannel. I just might wait to see if "community creditionals" really exist."

I wonder if the Obama Campaign made similar demands of the thousands of Germans who came to see him speak at the Tiergarten?

The Obama campaign insists that volunteering is not a requirement to get a ticket.

They can insist all they want, but when the people who signed up for tickets are singing a different tune, one has to wonder what the campaign was thinking. Are they really that desperate for volunteers and if they are, what does that tell you about the real state of Obama mania?