[john in springfield]

Thanks to those who encouraged me to post this thread. I have some photos to follow!

[gop4lyf]

Excellent! My friend lives near Cape Girardeau, and he is a life long Democrat who will be voting for McCain.

[1035rep]

bttt

[bray]

Any question McCain made the right choice. No way Romney etc could do this. We are on a winning track.

Pray for W, Saracuda and Our Troops

[rightinthemiddle]

Ah, now you’re getting responses!

I also attended this event. I found it very intresting that so many young people were there...high schoolers, college kids and 20-somethings. I’d say more than half the crowd was under 35. Very encouraging.

There were many young women there. I took one of my employees, a 25 year old who is just getting into politics. She loved Sarah.

I believe Biden attracted about 2,000 when he “rallied” in Springfield.

Southwest Missouri is critical to Missouri going for McCain. Bush carried 59 and 55 percent in Greene County. McCain needs 60 plus in Greene and Christian counties together for a win in Missouri.

[rightinthemiddle]

BTW...”you’re welcome.”

[misharu]

John, please make sure that when speaking of St. Louis that you distinguish between St. Louis City (Democratic stronghold) and St. Louis County (Pretty Red County). I live in the West St. Louis County and can tell you that its a pretty Conservative portion of the county.

BTW, loved your post and am happy you got to see Sarah. I saw her after the debate at Wash U . . .she is something else!!

[ErnBatavia]

Welcome to FR...and thanks for sharing the story; I’ve got a great Springfield story I’ll put in FReepmail momentarily.

[Parley Baer]

WOW! Figure one in ten people in the area came to her rally. That is very impressive. GO SARAH!

[jan in Colorado]

WELCOME TO FREE REPUBLIC, John!

You did a fantastic job with your post and with getting so many people through security! ;o)

I saw Governor Palin in Loveland, Colorado on Monday, and sadly even though there was still some seats available, several thousand were turned away because of slow security!

Looking forward to seeing your pictures!

[nikos1121]

How many did Obama have there last week?

[bailmeout]

That can’t be possible. Gov. Palin is a drag on the GOP ticket. Most of America hates her. /s

Further proof that the slowly rotting soon-to-be corpse known as the media is engaging in a deliberate campaign to demoralize the GOP base.

[john in springfield]

Okay, here are some photos!

Sarah Palin supporters lined up for hours, for as far as the eye could see... and farther. This line goes almost to the green house in the distance, and then turns down a back street and continues for at least a couple more blocks.

There were plenty of people in front, too.

At the back of the crowd, left.

Panning right...

Further right... the orange platform in the middle right is at the outer part of the fully-secured area. Everybody else was outside of the fully-secured area, which was separated from the main crowd by a "demilitarized zone."

Further right...

Further right.

The candidate herself was a small figure off in the distance... when you could actually catch a glimpse of her.

Behind us, these people climbed up onto the bumper of a news van to get a better view. Thanks, KSFX! A couple of others climbed into the tree behind these people.

There were a fair number of children there, including these toddlers, who continually toured the outer edges of the crowd in their train.

[kaylar]

My DBF and I wanted to attend, but we’re in Sedalia , so we couldn’t make it. We heard that people had to show up hours early (like, 4 AM early) just to make sure they’d get in! In contrast, when GWB was here in Sedalia, we showed up maybe an hour early to get in to the rally on the state fairgrounds, with no problem. Sure wish we could have made the Springfield rally.

[nobama08]

Sarah Palin will be here in Asheville tomorrow afternoon in the Civic Center. It holds about 7500. I think we’re in trouble.

[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

[Just mythoughts]

Awesome post!!!

[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: