Actually they did turn out to be a lot of votes. In 2012, Santorum won the state with less than 30,000 votes. Trump had 45,000 votes this go-around and Cruz picked up nearly 52,000. So definitely a huge improvement on turnout - due to the big crowds and enthusiasm.
Right. Great turnout which bodes well. But no correlation between Trump crowds and winning. Which I tried to argue to many here to no avail pre primary. So Trumps crowd in NH has absolutely nothing to do with Iowa and can be used as a tool to measure success. Bernie’s crowds dwarfef the witch and they tied. No correlation there either.