Anymore details? Any PUMAs?
Though the audience was one of the Palin’s largest to date, the actual size of the crowd could not be verified. According Mike Tucker, the fire chief of The Villages who was made available to the press by the McCain campaign, 60,000 people crammed into the streets to see Palin speak.
“There were people down the side streets, people down in the parking areas, people who couldn't quite make it around to the main areas,” Tucker said, adding that many people were let into the rally without tickets, making the crowd count impossible to verify.
The enthusiastic crowd welcomed Palin with shouts of “USA!,” and she chanted back along with them. As in many of her speeches, Palin promised that hard-working Americans will dig the country out of its economic woes, and she laced her remarks with fulsome praise for the nation's spirit. She used the words “America” or “Americans” 24 times during her 22-minute speech.
There were women holding signs “Pumas for Palin”