Dems to hold 2012 convention in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - President Barack Obama's selection of this Southern city for the 2012 Democratic convention signals he will try to reassemble his diverse coalition of 2008 supporters and fight for the conservative-leaning states that helped him win the White House.

The Democratic National Committee announced the selection of Charlotte yesterday, rejecting a trio of Midwestern cities hit hard by the recession - Cleveland, Minneapolis, and St. Louis - in favor of the more economically stable North Carolina.

The announcement of where Obama will formally kick off his re-election campaign was the latest step in his efforts pointing toward 2012. He has shifted political aides out of the White House, authorized a campaign headquarters for Chicago and started repositioning himself as a president who governs from the center of the ideological spectrum.

He must try again to cobble together the voting blocs that helped him win across the country, including in Republican-leaning North Carolina, Virginia and Indiana. He was the first Democratic presidential candidate in decades to win those. And he did it by appealing to a wide swath of voters, some of whom have soured on him since.

With the economy certain to dominate Obama's re-election bid, North Carolina's long-term industrial transformation - from tobacco, textiles and furniture to research, energy and banking - also plays into what may be the centerpiece of the Democrat's re-election bid, a call for America to focus on innovation to compete in the changing global marketplace.

The convention's apparent theme - The People's Convention - indicates that the president will try to rekindle the grassroots flavor of his groundbreaking 2008 bid.

"This will be a different convention, for a different time," first lady Michelle Obama wrote to supporters yesterday in an e-mail that disclosed the city where Democrats plan to nominate Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for a second term. She said the gathering would be "a grassroots convention for the people."

Independent voters were critical to his victory in 2008 but have tilted away from him since. Sporadic-voting minorities and young adults who backed him in droves can't be automatically counted on next year. Neither can those who voted for the first time, or disenchanted Republicans who crossed over to vote for him.