McCain Camp Lies About VA Crowd Size

WVEC reports:

Republican John McCain pledged to fight for a new direction for the country in an energetic new campaign stump speech Monday that sought to distance him from the economic policies of President Bush.

...

The Virginia Beach Fire Marshal's office estimated the size of the crowd to be 12,000. A McCain campaign spokeswoman claimed the crowd size was 25,000, but the Convention Center's capacity is only 16,000.

It's not the first time, either:

Senator John McCain has drawn some of the biggest crowds of his presidential campaign since adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket on Aug. 29. Now officials say they can't substantiate the figures McCain's aides are claiming.

McCain aide Kimmie Lipscomb told reporters on Sept. 10 that an outdoor rally in Fairfax City, Virginia, drew 23,000 people, attributing the crowd estimate to a fire marshal.

Fairfax City Fire Marshal Andrew Wilson said his office did not supply that number to the campaign and could not confirm it. Wilson, in an interview, said the fire department does not monitor attendance at outdoor events.

In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign.

Comments

[ShamusNYC]

I think that they're trying to reflect the way they want to count votes: 1=2...

[Johnjlws]

Wow the maverick or the mayor caught lying. Is that's still news? I've come to think of it as "their country first campaign."

[rmreddicks]

I think they mean "our" country first. Not yours. Not mine. Just theirs.

[beanchihuahua]

I mentioned this somewhere and it never posted. When Obama was at the VB convention center there were 3000 outside and 12000 inside.

Go to www.pilotonline.com to see what my fellow VBers have to say about his visit. Amazing the right wing, narrow minded snobbery that goes on in my temporary city of Virginia Beach.

[Jamchinadian]

In the campaign of McUnstable and MsUnable, believe half of what you see, a quarter of what you hear, and none of what they say.

[rmreddicks]

I think it was A.G. Mitchell in the Nixon admin who said "Watch what we do, not what we say." It may yet be germane in these last few weeks.

[flydoghead]

they would lie about what day of the week it was

[towny]

Hey Sarah is it true, does size matter?

[JR49]

McCain and his President.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CJWXCEr-zY

[jnratliff]

Does that not sound like everything else you have heard in the last twenty five years from republicans?
Always? The economy is going great the best in history? The number of jobs created or claimed created? The war in Iraq? Remember the Mission Accomplished banner? The costs of the war?
How reduced taxes brings in more revenue to the government? Trickle down?
How many more lies are you willing to believe?

[atciii]

McCain: "my friends, did you see the crowd at our last rally? there had to be at least 4 million people out there, my friends! when i was a POW you couldnt get but 2 people in my cell my friends."

[JJeff88]

Rule of thumb is that, when McCain and his people say something, the odds are 50% or more likely that you shouldn't believe them.

Heckuva way to run a campaign. Heckuva way to run a country.

[dutchess2]

Little, unnecessary lies....

Like cookie recipes lifted verbatum from someone else's cookbook and passed off as
"McCain Family recipes", Cindy is NOT an only child, nor did Mother Theresa ever meet her,
let alone talk her into adopting a child.

But the most startling are some of McCain's own whoppers in ads and in his stump speeches,
reporters asking him about them, and he denies they are lies...

Selecting Sarah Palin when we are desperate to try to save our country and she's next to useless for
anything important was just a final straw. That was a lie of the worst kind.

He was never gonna be POTUS, and its just a sorry shame that the republicans could not
bring themselves to support Mitt Romney and or Mike Huckabee..­. someone, anyone, with
a sincere interest in America.

[CTmom13]

McCain/Palin, Bush/Cheney, Rove, come on - most of the repbublican party are liars, that is what they are

[Grunty1]

An overpriveledged brat with a mean streak and is a compulsive liar.

Sounds like the last 8 years to me.

[atciii]

Bush and McCain muct have been seperated at birth. the personalities are identical!

[nmjangirl]

Along with their twin little sister moose girl

[GoBarryGo]

Nothing they say is believable. When you've lied so much for so long, you have no credibility. No one is even listening any more. There is a precept of law that you often hear when a judge instructs a jury that says it is reasonable to assume "false in one, fall in all" -- such that if a witness is shown to have lied on some point, it is logical to assume they will continue to lie and you have the right to discount anything else they say. I'm afraid the McCain-Palin ticket is at that point. No ratonal person believes anything that comes from any part of that campaign, not from the candidates, not from their shills - no one.

[MOregon]

If you are faithful in small things, you can be trusted on the large things....­.......

Now people have reformed their lives and go about trying to be honest and do good. But can't trust McCain at all.......­.

[atciii]

McCain has lied so much i dont think he knows he is lying anymore!