Sep 23, 2008

Palin draws crowd of 60,000 in Florida

A wildly cheering crowd of 60,000 greeted Sarah Palin (pictured) in the Villages (near Orlando).

That’s only about 15,000 less than Obama drew in Denver for his acceptance speech - and she didn’t need a band or an elaborate “Barackapolis” to do it.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters that John McCain is "the only great man in this race"

“He won't say this, so I'll say it for him," the Alaska governor said in an almost confidential tone at the close of her first Florida stump speech.

"There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you. John McCain wore the uniform of his country for 22 years -- talk about tough."

Recent polls have given the McCain-Palin ticket a single-digit edge but Florida is clearly up for grabs.

McCain, who led the Jan. 29 state primary with a big boost from popular Gov. Charlie Crist, has strong support in the vital I-4 corridor and across North Florida, where conservative southerners tend to register as Democrats but vote Republican in statewide races.

Link

- - - - - - - - - - U P D A T E - - - - - - - - - -

The Associated Press report said the crows was “tens of thousands” and downplayed the event by saying, “Palin's first Florida campaign stop a safe one.” Safe one indeed. Obama drew a much smaller crowd at the same location.

The AP report went on to make a very revealing Palin - Biden comparison:

Some people [attending the Palin rally] had to wait in line about 90 minutes just to park their cars. Biden's largest crowd during a visit earlier this month was about 2,000.

Not surprising since Biden has regularly been holding rally’s at High School gymnasiums attracting modest crowds.

Link