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.

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

North Carolina

Wisconsin

Florida- Ryan Event

Virginia

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.