In 2008, 0bama was drawing massive crowds (largely bussed in or attracted to the free rock concert, free food, free beer offered, at times, but huge nonetheless) and McCain struggled to draw more than a crowd numbering in the hundreds. McCain’s largest crowd by himself was about 10,000 in Miami the night before election day. That was a huge psychological factor in the 2008 election. I believe that 2016 will be about the same, Trump will fill arenas and stadiums, with tens of thousands, and Clinton will struggle to get more than 1,000 or so at her rallies. The media will attempt to cover for her with camera angles, but with social media the way it is now, the truth will be out there, and the psychological impact will be great.
So true, they prop up the beast whenever they can
Good observation. Maybe we should ask others to post photos of the crowd at Clinton events, or make comments to local newspapers wherever they appear questioning the paper’s crowd estimates.
As a pitiful example, the Billings tv station stated there were 300 in attendance for Bill Clinton’s rally last week. But the Missoulian, quite the liberal paper in a college town, inflated the number... to 400. 400!
Here are two photos of the event, to give an example of how a framed shot can exagerate attendance:
First a tight shot of the audience:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/photos-bill-clinton-visits-billings/collection_895bdc19-88cc-57fd-a30f-58922df45240.html#1
Second, from the back of the middle school auditorium. Actually I find the number 300 optimistic:
I was there. Sarah was stunning. McCain was there.
Hillary is neither popular nor likable.
Trump will draw huge crowds; she won’t.
And people like to go with the strong horse.
They went to Obama in 2008 and they’ll go this year to Trump.