Palin Draws Crowd of 60,000

By DemocracyRules

Only about 70,000 people in the whole town...

"Tens of thousands inched along roads into the picturesque town square of the complex, where they stood in sweltering heat for about four hours as local GOP officials and a country band revved up the crowd.

"Sa-Rah! Sa-Rah!" they chanted at every mention of her name, applauding loudly and waiving tiny American flags that were distributed -- along with free water bottles -- by local volunteers. The fire chief estimated the crowd at 60,000..."

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Nooo, nooo, Sarah Palin has peaked, she's headed out the floor ... those 50 to 60 million daily searches for her name are optical illusions I tell you ...

Pro Patria

Comments

[tristan]

That's totally a fake number. Don't believe it.
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[From DR -- Why not? The estimate comes from the fire chief, who knows his town. What countervailing evidence do you have? -- Pro Patria]

[Andrew Boylston]

The estimate seems a little high (remember the various totals we had for the million man march?) but for the sake of argument I'll believe the number, but it's not 60,000 out of 70,000 from that town. It's 60,000 people from the surrounding area.

That's the Orlando-Ocala area. There are probably close to a half million seniors between Orlando and Ocala, and then there are 2 million people in the Orlando metro area, and it's pretty staunchly Republican. So for her to draw a crowd of 60,000 from the surrounding area isn't really much of a surprise. In fact, if she didn't draw that big a crowd, it would be something to be worried about.

I would say it's par for the course (joke intended) there.

[Gawfer]

Kinda like the 75,000 that came to the Obama rally in Portland, OR:

From NBC's Mark Hudspeth
“Per the Obama campaign, 75,000 people (60,000 in the gates and 15,000 outside of them) turned out in Portland to hear Obama speak there this afternoon -- making it the largest Obama crowd to date…”

What Mr. Hudspeth failed to report was that the Indie Rock group The Decemberists (who coincidentally got their name from the group of Russian Officers who revolted after the defeat of Napoleon resulting in the creation of the fledgling KGB), performed a free concert and was likely the main attraction ( http://www.decemberists.com/news.aspx scroll down to May 16). Interestingly, the Obama website originally had them listed as ‘guest performance by the Decemberists’, but subsequently changed the wording to say: “Special Guest Performance by: Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen” who are the members of the band. (Sly little devils).
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/portlandevent

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is no matter how one tries to spin it, Sarah drew 60,000, (probably not all from that one town).

Barack (or the Decemberists) drew 75,000 from all over Oregon because ‘free is free’ and democrats like government handouts and entitlements.

[milowent]

the 60K number seems suspect, but there's no denying that palin is getting core republicans revved up.

[Andrew Boylston]

Gawfer,

I have no idea who The Decembrists are, but they played the city where I live fairly recently, as their name was on the marquee of the club. That club has a capacity of 500. There are plenty of other bigger venues in town. So my guess is going to be that the Decembrists were not the main attraction for the 75,000 who went to see Obama speak, and that their "draw" effect was negligible at best.

I don't know if the Obama figure is entirely accurate, just as I don't know if the Palin figure is entirely accurate. They both draw large crowds though.

[Gawfer]

The Decemberists are based in Portland and have a significant following there. For Portland, They were the main attraction. Check out their web site that I posted above for more information.

I'm a Jazz junkie so the pop and rock sound is lost on me, but they are certainly popular with the younger crowd.

On a side note, Mr Obama got in trouble with the local folks for putting temporary Toilets for the rally Directly on the Portland Police Memorial.

[Andrew Boylston]

Gawfer,

Nice to see another Jazz aficionado. I'm a classic jazz fan myself. Coltrane, Mingus, Byrd, Miles, Rollins, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Grant Green, Monk, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, etc. are just a few of my favorites from off the top of my head.

As for the link, the Decemberists don't appear to be the main draw. Their website acknowledges that they will be playing at Obama's rally, and that they will go on shortly after 12:30 when the Rally begins. Not "Obama will open up for us, and then we will play a concert". If it were the Rolling Stones or U2 or someone, then I would say that the crowd of 75,000 would definitely be there for the band. But this just looks like a local band donating their time to a politcal cause, which is probably also why their names were changed on the Obama site. Some sort of legal issue with the band's record company I imagine. Though I can't really say for sure.

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{From DR -- Are you mounting a counter-argument, or are you just offering idle speculation?}

[Gawfer]

ANdrew,

I intended (albeit not very clearly) that you check out their entire site. They are as popular in Portland as U2 is around the world. I guess they're developing their market base. Also, as I pointed out previously, after Obama camp discovered where their name came from, they changed the listing on their site to the members names.

Anyway, the're as popular with the 'youts' up there as Jimmy Buffet is with us middled agers.

As far as Music, one of my all time favs is The Yellowjackets, Manhattan Transfer, Dave Brubeck (saw him live), Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, and most any big band like Benny Goodman, Woody Hermon, Glen Miller, etc. I'm big on Horns and Harmony.

And most of the folks you listed.