The only high-ranking Caribbean official invited
Barbados Prime Minister, David Thompson was among the estimated 85 000 persons on location last night for the historic crowning of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidate.
Mr. Thompson arrived in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday evening as a guest of key operatives in the Obama campaign. His visit to the mile high city is believed to have been engineered by Political Advisor Hartley Henry who is rumoured to be a part of an international advisory team to the Obama campaign.
Henry has been in Denver for the past two weeks and is said to be working very closely with the messaging arm of the campaign.
Contacted last evening at the Invesco Field in Denver, where Obama delivered his historic acceptance speech, Henry confirmed that Prime Minister Thompson was in attendance and that he had a full day of meetings with some very high ranking senate and congressional officials.
Henry said: Prime Minister Thompson was the toast of a reception held in his honour. Though this was the busiest day of the convention, high ranking members of the Democratic Party dropped by for informal talks with the Prime Minister. Among those with whom the Barbados Leader met were Majority Whip James Clyburn, Charles Rangel, Harold Forde and a host of incumbent senators, prominent businessmen and lobbyists.
Issues discussed ranged from extension of the Caribbean Basin Initiative to Prime Minister Thompson’s request for tangible technical assistance to the region in the area of coastal security and drug interdiction. Several prominent US business executives also seized the opportunity to enquire of investment opportunities in Barbados. Among them billionaire property developer, Bob Johnson.
Mr. Thompson is believed to have been the only high ranking Caribbean official invited to witness the historic first embrace of an African-American as Presidential candidate for a leading political party.
Significantly, the Prime Minister witnessed the closing of the convention and national embrace of Barack Obama from the celebrity box which was set aside for close friends and relatives of the campaign leadership.
Source – Barbados Advocate
Bob Johnson Black Entertainment Television [BET] founder turned property developer became the first African- American billionaire when he sold BET media empire for $3b to media giant Viacom in 2000. In 2002 he became the first African-America to wholly own a professional sports team when he brought the NBA franchise in Charlotte. His real estate investment company RLJ lists revenues of $92m. An $8m 85-room four-start resort opens in 2009 in Liberia.
Sources – allbusiness.com, usatoday.com, chf international
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September 10, 2008 at 10:33 pm
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