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

[indyleftist]

Did they plummet or did they just start doing accurate counts?

[nomobull]

MY GUESS WOULD BE THE LATTER

[Agent420]

Both

[MaybeMilo]

While I'd LIKE it to be true, I must admit it's entirely possible the photos were taken either well before or well after Mc's appearance - the evidence as-is isn't quite enough for me just yet.

[jhoughton1]

You gotta admit, McCain has a way of showing up at events -- biker/VFW conventions? -- where there's already a crowd. He's never drawn much of one himself. And people are gonna get tired of Palin, real quick. Now that her whole act has been made a very funny satire by Tina Fey, she's toast.

[lemonyashes]

Fioina complained about Tina Fey's performance not realizing it's SNL satire and that's what they do.

[nomobull]

OH PLEASE

[Rothgar]

I wonder if the Media will point to these empty events.
Time for the dagger!
Time to point out that when McCain says he opposes earmarks that means is that he trusts Washington Bureaucrats MORE than the representatives of the American people to figure out where to spend our money or who can help with a problem. That what Earmarks are supposed to be a way for our representatives to represent our needs! No earmarks more power in the White House.

[Veratruth]

FOX WON'T. They bow down to Republicans. I think it has something to do with the almighty dollar.

[Bluesue]

They would dump him if they could and replace him with her.

I wonder how he feels about this. I think he could be seething that it takes her presence for him to draw a crowd. I bet we see them together most of the time.

Palin's going to replace Lieberman as the one who whispers in McCain's ear with corrections or when he get confused.

[nomobull]

EVEN WITH HER THEY DON'T EVEN GET THE CAPACITY CROWD. AND THERE WAS BIGGER CROWD IN ALASKA AT A PROTEST RALLY THAN A SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT.

[edwarvir]

Who cares they are both saying the same thing about the issues NOTHING.
When is she going to be vetted. Where are her tax papers We need to see
her medical and mental records. where are his medical papers. Get busy
JohnBush. if you have nothing to hide let us see them.

[DC]

McSame will loose in a landslide.

[d00derman]

McCain shouldn't just have the flag thrown onto the seats like that. The flag needs to be treated with respect, and handled correctly.

[pazcu]

amen! good catch

[Veratruth]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the abuse of the flag,. It was probably used for some other reason other than to show patriotism. Perhaps they were trying to hide the empty seats, and have most of the Republicans sit in seats below the flag ... then doctor the picture. Anyway, they try to figure out ways to LIE all the time.

[thinkworklivelove]

Send him back to Arizona! He can pick amongst his nine homes. America cannot afford Bush 44.

[Rossan]

Tucker is in denial. The ticket to nowhere ..McCain /Palin or McSame, they answer to both.

[lanshark]

Speaking of nowhere, there's now a Road to Nowhere-- $30million for a 9 mile gravel road through a wildlife refuge. Jesus, is a Alaska a welfare state or what? So much for rugged individualists. They suck the lower 48 dry despite their state government having abundant gas and oil revenue, and a small population (less than 1 million citizens).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080915/pl_usnw/gov__sarah_palin_supports_a_new__road_to_nowhere___senate_committee_approves_treacherous_road_cutting_through_protected_alaska_

[marytny]

Volunteer on Election day as a poll watcher.
NO MORE STOLEN ELECTIONS especially if you're in a battleground state.
It's a paying gig too.....

http://act.credoaction.com/pollworkers/index.html?rc=tm

[cmnsntz]

I was there, it was packed when the old man came out.

[pazcu]

show me the money

[KodeBloo]

Yeah, right. All of the contradictory photos in existence have been doctored.

McVictim.

[Veratruth]

Don't you know the old man's name? Let me tell you right here and now, if that place was packed, the Republicans would be crying foul at the top of their lungs ... and they got some good strong lungs. Most of us here will flip-flop and shed a few tears.

[Veratruth]

I would like to see more comments from people who were there. Also, I wish there were pictures of people seated while McCain is speaking.

[learnsomething]

McCain/Palin: The Ticket To Nowhere!

[xandix]

McCain was the default republican candidate. They did not like their other candidates and had no other options except McCain. Romney is mormon. Huckabee is too nice and did actually want to help people. Guiliani had no platform beyond 9/11.

As for the republican's "historic" ticket. They are behind the times. Ferraro was on the democratic ticket over 20 years ago. Hillary Clinton campaigned on her own accord this year.

[KOisGod]

How appropriate, the seats under the "Country First" banner.

Empty

That matches McSame's campaign promises, empty rhetoric, hollow words, so easily revealed as bullcrap.

[SantaFeStars]

Yup,

The economy is on the road to no where!

McCain and Palin are on the road to no where!

Rove is on the road to no where!

And,

Obama and Biden are on the road to the White House!