Is it just the camera angle? When they are getting off the airplane the folks are quite a bit away behind the barricade. But the photo from the podium (and the first photo) seems to show the folks much closer to the plane.
I can’t imagine that they would have moved the barricades back to accomodate more people - but maybe so. I wonder if the audience was supposed to be just in the shade of the hangar on a warm fall day and folks on the tarmac is “overflow”?
McCain’s new cast of thousands, all unknown
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076296/posts
“Since setting out from St. Paul Thursday night with his new running mate Sarah Palin, John McCain is for the first time being regularly welcomed by Obama-style crowds.
A midday rally Saturday at an airport hangar here seems to have pulled McCain’s third straight showing of over 10,000 attendees... Staff had projected only 1,000 to show up yesterday for a morning rally in a Milwaukee suburb, they said, while an estimated 12,000 ended up flooding Cedarbury’s small-town streets.”
You are just misunderstanding the time line.
McCain and Palin arrived by SUV, and at that time, people were closer to the airfield.
After the Rally, they walked through the crowds, greeting people, towards the plane, to head to their next stop at 6pm. (I don't remember where.)
By that point, the Secret Service had moved the crowds away from the tarmak, and secured the plane.