Team Obama Spin: Lack Of Supporters At Rallies Because They Are 'Intentionally' Limiting Crowds

By Susan Duclos

In 2008, Barack Obama could draw a crowd, no denying that. Hundreds of thousands came when he visited, women fainted, pundits compared him to Jesus and his speeches made a thrill go up Chris Matthews' leg.

Those days are long gone.

That was made abundantly clear when Obama's reelection campaign touted his "official" campaign launch, claiming it would be full and have "overflowing crowds" and ended up with thousands of open seats.

The Obama spin after that embarrassment is that the campaign is "intentionally" limiting the crowds by restricting tickets.

“We have plenty of time for big rallies,” a campaign spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said between the rallies on Thursday. “Our focus right now is on exciting our supporters and winning over undecided voters and the smaller and medium-size events are the best venue to accomplish that because the president can closely engage with the crowd.”

There are still overflowing crowds at rallies, but now they are Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan rallies, the Republican ticket for 2012. A comment on the linked piece shows that not only are events overflowing but Romney and Paul are still engaging with the crowds, despite the masses.

joInAmerica • 12 hours ago

I gave up a day of my vacation to go and see Paul Ryan speak at a suburban high school in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The gym held several thousand, the bleachers were packed, the entire gymnasium floor was packed with standees, They finally had to stop admitting people because of fire regulations. It was 107 degrees (4 pm). People were still lined up outside. Rep. Ryan went out and talked to them before he talked to us. He came in, absolutely rocked the house, there were at least 15 standing O's, Ryan is amazing. No politician's weasel words, just real, inspiring leadership, and ideas. Fantastic experience. The event had only been announced the day before, and all of us showed up by word of mouth (I had accidentally heard about it on a local news show the day before.)

Visual examples of the popularity of the Romney/Ryan 2012 ticket:

Ohio

Hundreds of coal miners and their families stand in line while waiting to attend a rally at the Century Mine near Beallsville, Ohio, for Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/The Intelligencer, Scott Mccloskey)

North Carolina

Overflow crowd at Romney/Ryan event in Mooresville, N.C., August 12, 2012

Wisconsin

Waukesha, WI

Florida- Ryan Event

Paul Ryan event, The Villages, Florida. August 18, 2012

Virginia

Full crowd in Manassas, VA.

Google images have many many more examples of the Romney - Ryan crowds

The day after Mitt Romney announce Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate, Obama's Chicago HQ sent out a panicked email to their supporters, specifically mentioning the crowd sizes:

Paul --
I just got this disturbing report: Yesterday's Romney-Ryan rally in North Carolina pulled in an overflow crowd of 15,000 people.
There's no spinning that number. It's a LOT of people, and the Republican base in energized.
And that's not all. Since the VP announcement, Romney's campaign has brought in over 70,000 donations from his Tea Party base.
We've got to step up our game and mobilize our supporters -- starting right now.
Donate $3 or right now to help us rally our base around President Obama's agenda >>
Listen to what one Republican supporter said about Paul Ryan: "I love him...He's going to excite the Tea Party and get them on board..."
We can't let the Republicans claim the momentum. Donate $3 or whatever you can:
http://dccc.org/Stand-With-President-Obama
Thanks,
Brynne
Brynne Craig
DCCC Field Director

Of course, Team Obama expects the public to believe his small events are deliberate, rather than the consequence of his disastrous disapproval numbers.

They admit, via the email above, they cannot "spin" Romney-Ryan overflow crowds, so instead they are attempting to spin their own lack of overflow crowds.