PALIN DRAWS CROWD OF 70,000 IN THE VILLAGES (FLORIDA RALLY 9/21/08)

News-Press | Sunday, September 21, 2008 | Bill Cotterell

[kristinn]

Gannett owned website. Headline and link only. Will look for another postable source. The article says the fire chief estimates the crowd today at Palin's rally at 70,000.

http://news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS0107/80921022

[Miss Didi]

PALIN DRAWS CROWD OF 60,000 IN FLORIDA

[thesearethetimes...]

Sheepish look... Worms...somewhere my son is laughing. Monty Python too...definitely one of my Emily Litella moments, lol.

Tatt

[6323cd]

Actually, before Palin became the VP nominee, a whole bunch of us FReepers barely paid attention to the elections.

Very true; I was one of them.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

It was reallly cute because Piper thanked us all for letting her be there. My 5 year old daughter wants to play with her. She’d even share her toys.

[editor-surveyor]

"I believe I read at Politico that they’ve already, in essence, written off Florida."

No, Florida wrote them off! :o)

[thesearethetimes...]

So wonderful to hear! Went to the McCain rally in Jax, and enjoyed the heck out of all the wonderful people! Very happy crowd :)

Tatt

[snugs]

She is the little star

[6323cd]

We know Tony’s watching all this with glee.

I've been thinking about him so much all this month; I'm sure he's getting some celestial jollies at recent events. Dang, now my monitor's gone blurry.

[kristinn]

Thanks!

[6323cd]

Mine is sitting here coming up with silly names for his new freeper name, the last one was the ‘Holy Hand Grenade’.

You could always suggest "Brother Maynard"!

[Ancient Drive]

and Palin did not need Greek Columns!

[roostercogburn]

Her legs are “greek columns”!!!!
And I mean that in the best way!!!

She is a handsome woman.

[kristinn]

Anymore details? Any PUMAs?

[editor-surveyor]

"May I suggest that you ask a mod to correct the thread title?"

There were less biased estimates around 100,000

[kristinn]

CNN's take on the crowd:

Though the audience was one of the Palin’s largest to date, the actual size of the crowd could not be verified. According Mike Tucker, the fire chief of The Villages who was made available to the press by the McCain campaign, 60,000 people crammed into the streets to see Palin speak.

“There were people down the side streets, people down in the parking areas, people who couldn't quite make it around to the main areas,” Tucker said, adding that many people were let into the rally without tickets, making the crowd count impossible to verify.

The enthusiastic crowd welcomed Palin with shouts of “USA!,” and she chanted back along with them. As in many of her speeches, Palin promised that hard-working Americans will dig the country out of its economic woes, and she laced her remarks with fulsome praise for the nation's spirit. She used the words “America” or “Americans” 24 times during her 22-minute speech.

[Napoleon Solo]

BHO’s were there for the concerts!!

[RayChuang88]

This is what you get when most of the voters can "relate" to Governor Palin--she has a star quality that is threatening to make The Zero look silly in comparison. Here's a smiley representation of what that crowd looked like down there today:

[Islander7]

In California,'Palin factor' sparks fear among Dems, joy among GOP

Post-convention swing state polls are tipping toward Sen. John McCain, the TV pundits are waxing about "The Palin Factor," and Sen. Barack Obama's California supporters are freaking out about a race Democrats were uncommonly confident about only a month ago.

Conversely, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's addition to the GOP ticket jolted Northern California Republicans out of what one described as their "Underground Railroad" existence in one of the nation's most liberal regions. Ever since her speech to the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3, party officials say volunteers have been contacting California GOP offices in numbers unseen since Ronald Reagan was on the ballot for the White House.

Despite generating all this fear and enthusiasm, the Palin Factor hasn't changed the race in California. Obama beats McCain 52 percent to 36 percent in a Field Poll released last week, and neither campaign is broadcasting ads in the state's expensive television markets. On Thursday, Palin canceled her rally and fundraising visit to the state planned for this week.

Click to story

[unspun]

And where was FoxNews?

Were they afraid it would conflict with one of their gossip about a kidnapped girl programs?

[comps4spice]

I live in Texas. Yesterday I saw a pickup truck—nothing amazing in Texas—that had a bumper sticker. At first look I thought it was an Obama bumper sticker—same type logo, same font. But when I looked closer it didn’t say “Hope” it said, in a large font it said “Hype” and the small letters above it said, “Don’t believe the audacity of hype”. It was great.