Posted on 09/21/2008 5:59:43 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Sarah Palin tonight attracted the largest crowd yet to any Republican campaign event this cycle, drawing tens of thousands of Floridians out in a conservative-leaning retirement community north of Orlando for a solo rally.
Exactly how many voters Palin, making her first campaign trek to the Sunshine State, had in The Villages is uncertain.
Mike Tucker, a local fire marshal, estimated 60,000. But reporters on the ground, including AP's Brendan Farrington and my colleague Ken Vogel, would only say "tens of thousands," suggesting the marshal's estimate was on the high side. The St. Pete Times's Adam Smith had another fire official in the crowd say it was about 25,000.
Regardless, the size of the crowd underscores just how enthused conservatives are for Palin and the sort of buzz she's still able to drive nearing a month after her introduction as John McCain's running mate.
Republicans can always draw good crowds out at the sprawling Villages -- exactly a year ago I saw Fred Thompson thronged like a matinee idol there -- but the Florida GOP is saying tonight that Palin's crowd broke state attendance records. At the very least, it outpaced the 15,000 President Bush drew to the retirement community four years ago.
To reiterate: An Alaska governor who was virtually unknown a month ago and is the number two on the presidential ticket may have doubled or tripled the crowd for a sitting president.
See post #6. ;)
Let's see. Who do we believe a fire marshal or a reporter?
Saw an article from Orlando earlier today, it stated the organizers gave out 80,000 tickets beforehand.
According to eyewitnesses on other threads, it sounds like tens of thousands inside the event itself, and 60,000 inside, outside, in the area, all trying to attend. Not rocket science, MSM.
25,000? LOL yeah, keep telling yourselves that lie Politico. These are REAL voters so lying to yourselves about the real numbers isn’t going to help Obama one bit.
Bingo!!!
How many people were actually there
I was at the Bush Rally in 2004 - and the Sarah Palin rally today topped that by a whopping 10 miles...I’d guess there were way more than 70,000 there.
My in-laws live in the Villages and I live only 8 miles north, but I saw tags from all over the state and even some from Georgia.
There were students from UCF, USF, UF, and many others. They wore t-shirts like “Gators for McCain” and others waved the UCF flag.
Some people in attendance where in wheelchairs, and some walked with canes, but the vast majority walked unaided and stood for hours in the hot sun just to see Sarah. Ages ranged from babies to very old. There were lots of families with kids or teens on bikes without parents.
It was a broad representation of ages and races there. One group of Puerto Ricans began chanting for McCain! I saw several black families and one black teen who was there alone - he stood nearby and didn’t utter a sound when some moron cut in front of where he had been standing for over 1 hour. He was near the railing waiting to get a glimpse of Sarah walk by on her way to the stage. The rest of us took up for him and asked the lady to move and she finally did. An older white man put his arm around the black teen and he just smiled in appreciation.
Unfortunately, the heat took its toll - most people were dehydrated and some required medical attention. Maybe next time they’ll hold a rally later in the day.
All in all it was a very fun event.
FLORIDA LOVES SARAH!
I don’t think that anyone is trying to “marginalize” her.
I love her sense of style. She is a lovely lady who knows how to pick some spectacular shoes and dress like a lady.
Maybe you just need a nap.
See post 34. And I’m doing better than a nap. ‘Night. ;)
I hope Sarah/McCain come out to California, To Orange County, she will draw an even bigger crowd here.
Some Midol might also help. (nitey nite)
Were there any disruptors present? We had a few in Colo Springs 2 weeks ago, and I faced off against the loudest mouthed of them.
FYI, I posted my best closeup photos of John and Sarah here, and told of my ad hoc Freep of the disruptors.
Someone should collect in one place, pointers to all the firsthand Palin/McCain rally stories/photos posted in FR by Freepers all across the country.
I was there. My report is here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2087306/posts?page=368#368
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