20,000 People Rally for Sarah Palin in Springfield, Missouri!

eyewitness report | October 25, 2008 | john in springfield

[john in springfield]

Yesterday my daughter and I attended a massive Sarah Palin rally in Springfield, Missouri.

Springfield is Missouri's third-largest city. Officially, it has a population of 150,000. When you include outlying communities, it's probably more like 200,000 people in the area.

Local news has estimated the crowd that turned out at 20,000! This is good news in this battleground state. Every election, it seems to be basically us in Springfield and the entire rest of the state against the big-city liberals in Kansas City and St. Louis. And in St. Louis, they bring out the dead.

Heck, they've even been known to ELECT a dead guy!

People didn't just come from Springfield, of course. We stood in line for an hour and a half with a family of 7 who got up at 5 o'clock in the morning to drive up from Little Rock, Arkansas. Someone else mentioned having spoken to somebody who came from Kansas.

It was clear that the organizers were not well prepared for the size of the crowd that turned up. The event was originally planned for McDonald Arena on the Missouri State Campus, which was capable of holding around 4,000 people. Several days ago, when 4,000 tickets vanished in the first 90 minutes of ticket distribution at the local Republican headquarters (my daughter arrived 30 minutes after the doors opened and were unable to get a ticket), it was decided to move the rally to a larger venue - the parking lot of the headquarters Bass Pro Shop.

Even though we got there three hours before Sarah Palin was to speak, there were so many people it was very unclear whether everyone was going to be able to get in. After standing in line for an hour and a half, I estimated the progress that was being made and realized that if it continued at this rate, it would be late afternoon at least before we ever reached the security checkpoint. And there were a lot more people behind us than in front of us.

At around 1030, I made a long hike up to the security checkpoint and spoke to the TSA people who were processing entrants through 4 or 5 security gates. Did the organizers have any idea what they were dealing with in terms of logistics? I asked.

From where I was standing, it was looking like 10,000 people were going to be turned away. The TSA man that I spoke to was not sympathetic. We might very well turn 10,000 people away, he said. Happens all the time. It was like, so what? He seemed to want to treat me as a nuisance, a rabble-rouser. I asked him to get a message through to whoever was in charge that things were not looking good for about 10,000 people out here.

Whether coincidence or not, five minutes later the line began to move forward FAR more quickly.

I'd like to take credit for that, but it looks possible that what *may* have happened was that they filled up the area that they had intended to fully secure. If that was the case, the TSA man I'd talked to must not have had a clue what the actual plan was.

Tight security was maintained in an area of the parking lot close to the podium, but in the end the majority of the crowd was allowed to simply flood around in the further reaches of the parking lot. The outer area was still a semi-secured area, as it was blockaded with 18-wheel trailers from the local Prime Trucking company.

In any event, the security was adequate as there were Secret Service, spotters on the roof, and who knows what else. And the crowd in the outer circle (which was probably 80% of those who showed up) was so far away from the podium that it was hard for most of us to actually see Sarah Palin. One had to keep jockeying for position in order to keep her somewhat in view, a speck in the distance. Hearing was difficult in the outer reaches as well. Behind us, several people climbed up onto the bumper of a news van to try and get a better view.

The crowd, generally, was friendly and enthusiastic. Although the great majority of the crowd that turned up would have had difficulties seeing or hearing, I didn't hear anyone complain about being so far away - everyone simply seemed to be glad that such a large crowd had turned out, and that they had gotten to be there.

After we left the rally, I turned on the radio and the first words I heard were something like, "...Sarah Palin's speech here in Springfield, and everybody that we've talked to so far seems to agree: Sarah Palin hit a massive home run."

[ErnBatavia]

Good stuff! Looks like it’s getting downright nippy there, given the duds being worn. We’re still trying to get a day below the mid 90’s, but it does look like we’re done with the triple digits here in the desert.

[john in springfield]

Yes, one thing I didn’t mention was that it was COLD! And for the first few hours, it threatened rain. Still no deterrent to 20,000 people.

[roses of sharon]

Thanks for the report, it is good to see that we are not alone!

[Ben Hecks]

Excellent post, John, and welcome to FR! I was in line next to a couple from Grove, Oklahoma - they left home at 5:00AM.

[CaraM]

Thanks for posting this. My hope is that all the conservatives in rural Missouri will be able to out-vote the Obama followers in St Louis and Kansas City.

Bttt

[musicman]

Great pics!!!!!! BTTT !!!!

[Artemis Webb]

I live only a mile or so from Bass Pro but was unable to attend yesterday. My wife was busy at a location two blocks away. Across the street she saw a very large woman get out of her car with a handmade sign that said;

PRO CHOICE
PRO WOMAN
ANTI PALIN

Well my wife knew that no signs were allowed so sure enough a short time later the frustrated big lib came back, threw her sign in her car and drove away.

[1035rep]

Nice photo’s, thank you.

[Just mythoughts]

Awesome post!!!

[musicman]

"Well my wife knew that no signs were allowed so sure enough a short time later the frustrated big lib came back, threw her sign in her car and drove away."

Thanks for posting that!!

[There's millions of'em]

Thanks for the report.

Great job

Anyone who is forcasting a "normal" Republican turnout for this election is on crack!

[chickpundit]

I'm glad you posted this thread. I was able to attend as well. It was freezing cold. We got there around 8:00, and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes by the end of it. I bet there would have been even more people who would have turned out with decent weather. I was getting frustrated in line, watching the news cameras on the 12 protestors there at the time. The had such clever signs like "McCain Hugs Bush" and "Pipeline to Nowhere". They were a pretty affable bunch. At one point they started chanting "USA", and we chanted "USA" along with them for a while, lol. Later, maybe 20 protestors wearing pink shirts showed up way across the street holding teeny signs. They were pink signs, the size of standard paper, lol. No one could read their tiny signs. All that effort for nothing :) The lines were long and winding, but everyone was very polite. Once they finally let everyone in, we were packed like sardines, but it was all worth it. Palin did a great job as always. I was able to see her from time to time if someone else moved their head :) I was able to get a few pictures by raising my camera high above my head and hoping I was taking pictures of Palin. The sky was overcast, and one point after Palin talked about cutting government spending or some such topic, everyone noticed sudden radiant, almost heavenly beams of sunlight burst through the clouds. Palin said, "We all saw the light". It was a pretty funny off the cuff remark. Everyone in the crowd was deferential to others, trying to move to the side an inch or two to allow others to take photos or get a quick glimpse. When we left the parking lot, everyone exited in a calm and orderly manner. After I added the pics, it looks like this post doesn't have any spacing between paragraphs, but oh well, here are a couple:

[longtermmemmory]

aha! this was just the usual crowd at that “bitter people” store...

[chickpundit]

Yep, just a bunch of bitter clingers :)

[GlockLady]

Sarah's rally started at 11:00. My friend and I got there about 6:15. There were probably about 50 people ahead of us. A co-worker’s high school son and two of his friends got there about 3:30 a.m. People really started to come in about 7:00. We wound up about two rows back and a little right of center stage. Would have gotten to shake her hand if some people hadn't pushed in front of us. I had printed off a picture of her holding a rifle. I had the caption “You can't beat a woman who shoots!” on the bottom. I gave it to the co-worker’s son and he got her to sign it. He said she laughed when she saw the picture.
We couldn't tell how many were behind us, I just kept hoping at least 20,000 would come. Naomi Judd introduced her and made a wonderful speech in support of the kind of person Sarah is. Piper and Bristol sat on the stage with Naomi between them. Naomi kept mothering Piper, trying to keep her warm, etc. It was really cold.

By the way, to prepare for your experience, we were not allowed to take any chairs so had to stand for the entire 7 hours we were there. It was well worth it, though. We, also, were amazed at the number of people in their teens and twenties.

[john in springfield]

GlockLady, did you have tickets?

[rightinthemiddle]

Well done! Stay in touch.

[mavfin]

I had to work that day, or I would have gone myself. I live in Springfield. I did get stuck in traffic as her entourage headed to the airport, though!

I’m seeing McCain signs pop up like dandelions in the past month, too, while what few Obama signs I’ve seen are still pretty lonely.