McCain's Crowd Numbers Plummet In Palin's Absence

John McCain returned to the campaign trail on Monday, only this time without his popular vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin. The results were somewhat less than enthusiastic. As reported by MSNBC's First Read, the Republican presidential nominee addressed a crowd of roughly 3,000 people in a stadium that seats 16,000.

The pictures, however, tell many more words. The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena where McCain spoke had large swaths of sections entirely empty, an American flag draped over the seats.

Palin has helped McCain make up much of this enthusiasm gap he had with Barack Obama - though, as as Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, the campaign has been exaggerating its crowd numbers. And it remains to be seen how many people the Alaska Governor attracted at her own stop today in Colorado. But McCain's low attendance figures on Monday may, in the end, persuade his campaign to plan more joint appearances going forward, a small but potentially important development.

UPDATE: Jonathan Martin at Politico reports that Palin drew approximately twice as many people as McCain this morning. All of which, the McCain campaign says, is no big deal -- taunting a bit by pointing to the polls.

"Scoreboard check," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. "They're hurting in Florida - our attendance on a Monday morning is better off than Barack Obama's empty rhetoric and absent record - that won't deliver change."

Comments

[Mdazes]

Hopefully, when Nov 4 comes people will be voting on issues and realize this is for President of the United States and not President of the Senior High School class. We must go forward and not back to the GOP way of doing business the past nearly 8 years.

[SunshineDaydream]

my daughter came home from school today and told me mcbush had so many people show up they had to turn people away. i showed her these pics and she was shocked.

[Barryson]

Bought and Paid for!! These poll numbers, and exaggerated attendance figures, and all these talking heads gushing about the incredible impact Sarah Palin has had on the campaign! All b.s. to make Obama supporters lose heart.

The sparsely seated stadium you see in these photos look a lot like those at the RNC. When the cameras pull back from their tight frames, you can see how few people are in attendance.

I knew it. Bought and Paid for.

[DebbieinPhx]

Well, I think that the cover page of HuffPo tonight says it all..... good bye lipstick, hello economy.

[DebbieinPhx]

You know what else I though of..... these gimmicks had the adverse effect with regard to Obama supporters.... He had the best month of his campaign with regard to donations... $66 million worth... that's what these gimicks were worth.... 66 million reasons the Palin BS helped Obama

[SunshineDaydream]

i bet this month will be even better. i gave for the first time on friday. and many other posters have said they did the same.

[Veratruth]

I knew they lied in the beginning. I was right ... they were wrong. Their lies are beginning to backfire. The pollsters probably call McCain Camp and ask, "What numbers do you want us to throw our today"? ...Love those pictures of McCain's rally that don't LIE.

[JessWonderin]

Looks like the crowds were as impressive as Wall Street was with the McCain Economic plan . . .

[levibatgirl]

That place is practically empty!

Shades of more to come for mcbush and his cave woman side kick.

[firewmn]

**
Clearly Mccain has become and oddity..!!

**

[preatorius]

All of a sudden she has cancelled all of her interviews, and she has disappeared.
Perhaps the P&lin crowds were just extras hired by the Mc*inane camPAIN, to attract gullible people.

[Veratruth]

I think he does pay his supporters to travel with him and then someone doctors the pictures for TV. They got caught this time, and I'm thrilled ... Thanks to the honest photographers.

[Veratruth]

Palin is dying to be on Oprah now. The LIE is that women are boycotting Oprah because she said she would have Palin on the show after the election. That is not what Palin demands.

[margardner]

Palin is a novelty, even my neighbor says she's already sick of her. Isn't so sure now how trustworthy
she is. As days go by, it seems Mrs. Palin is losing her shine.

[richardgordon]

America and the world better hope so, because if McCain gets in you can be damn sure that Palin will be right behind him. The past two weeks have demonstrated that McCain isn't the problem, Palin is by far the greater danger. If you read the NYT article on Saturday people would be very afraid. She is Dick Cheney and George Bush with illusions of grandeur and virtually no experience or understanding of the realities of the world. It would be comparable to handing a loaded gun to a three year old child.

[Lupin77]

Looks like most people are not interested in seeing MC - they are more curious about the Alaskan lady so they're not turning up for him. Maybe she should be the prez candidate and he in the vp slot - makes more sense to me that way.

[Dodge]

If you look hard enough at the stadium pictures and squint your eyes... you can see Bob Ueker sitting in the last row!

[ProudLiberalDemocrat]

When Tulane plays home-games in the Superdome, it has a similar feeling....I was a Member of Uekers Pukers who sat in the last few rows.....far away from the field of play......lol......

[doctorwang]

good one!

[Moxo]

NEWSFLASH: ******* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ********
Dateline: McCain Campaign Headquarters, Hopefull, Arizona
Time: 18:15pm Monday September 15th, 2008

Subject: ALMOST 305.2 MILLION ATTEND MCCAIN RALLY

Hill Knowlton, senior spokesperson for the McCain/Palin 2008 campaign, revealed that upon waking this morning John McCain found over 305 million Americans were in the country. "This size of attendence is what we can caontinue to expect from supporters of John McCain's campaign, as he bring sTruth and Honesty back to the Straight-Talk Express".

Mr. Hill Knowlton added, "The fact that 305 million Americans found time to be in the same country as Mr. McCain speaks volumes about his personality , his honesty, and his love for the American Dream of a fore-closed home in every pot."

End of Newsflash.

[Betty Jean]

McCain's numbers plummet? No kidding!! He needs Palin like he needs oxygen! Wake up, people!

[PlantGod72]

That's an insult to oxygen....

[Veratruth]

LAUGHING OUT LOUD....

[plages]

McPal, is just so old, and soooo, backwards in their thinking, and non-statements! Bridge to no where . . . Poof!

[rafael44]

PAILIN PAILIN PAILIN for president!!!!!!!!!!!

[gravitus]

All of those exclamation points are making me dizzy....

[Obamlatina]

RAFAEL44 YOU MUST BE IN LALA LAND TO THINK PALIN IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. LAST I CHECKED YOUR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WAS MCBUSH
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAH

[Veratruth]

DO YOU WANT MORE ......."GATES"? I'm hoping you change your mind. PEACE.

[Muskeg]

Gov. Palin couldn't even get 1,000 people out to see her here in Anchorage, Alaska!

But we had NO problem getting well over 1,000 to protest her.

She is not to be trusted!!!!

[onlinesavant]

Actually it was 1483 people protesting her, and even on their best day together, their crowds are the size of a "small" Obama crowd. They had 10,000 people supposedly aon the day that McSame introduced her as his running mate. Obama just got 8000 in NH over the weekend

[diogeron]

Palin is like a traveling road show by a one woman stand up act. She is scripted and does not deviate from the teleprompter and will only shake hands and not answer questions. Why not just hire Tina Fey to do Sarah Palin? She's a better actress and is actually much better informed on the issues of the day from what I've seen.