I walked out.
Honestly, there was always people coming and going and it didn’t seem to me that there were more people walking out than “average”.
But. I was there when the ballroom was only 80% empty about 30 min before Bush took the stage. I watched hundreds of interns with Jeb! stickers walk into the room in a 15 min period. They came complete with team leaders that organized them to take every empty seat and to spread out to fill the seat of anybody that left.
IF anybody was planning an organized walkout, it’s very deflating to know that your seat will by taken by a sycophant the moment you vacate it. This was an effective strategy in damping down a walk out.
But. Look at the video. Look how nervous el Jefe was. He knew that he wasn’t among friends.
Also, busing those interns into the room meant buying their admission tix and that meant each of them got a straw poll vote. Bush’s complete poll result can be attributed to bought votes. It’s a straw poll, that’s how it works. Without the bus-in, I doubt he’d have done a quarter as well in the poll. Seems to me that the only people that cared to vote for him were people paid to be there.
Thanks for the report and the excellent perspective.
I think Bush is toast.
only 80% FULL I meant.
Watch the video of the Bush speech and you will see that there was a massive walkout, and then later smaller ones. It’s probably easier to see on the video than it was in person, because the cameras were focusing on it. It definitely was much more than people milling about or the usual going in and out.