pic shows size of the crowd at Bernie's launch

[magical thyme]

[IVoteDFL]

1. I just got an email that they moved the minneapolis meeting to a bigger location

and you have to RSVP now.

I'm getting hopeful

[kenfrequed]

3. cool!

I need to check my email. I didn't even k ow he was coming to town!

[DreWId]

49. Where in Minneapolis?

Do you have the details on that, and how to RSVP?

[geardaddy]

51. I tried to RSVP but it said it was already full.

Maybe now we can get in?

[sabrina 1]

56. Because it was already booked a few days ago! That is great news, have to check my email.

[tblue37]

2. Fifth rec--to the greatest page. nt

[L0oniX]

4. K & R

[truebrit71]

5. Wow! That's a big crowd!

Go Bernie Go!

[Scarsdale]

39. Lost

Today $carah PayMe will report that this crowd got lost on the way to her "non wedding" retitled "Celebration of Life"!!

[hootinholler]

6. Has anyone reported crowd estimates?

How much ice cream was served?

[Mnpaul]

8. Top estimate I saw was 5000

but it looks like more than that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. Cali posted local media said 6 to 8

since I could not get any actual, I ran with thousands

[Trajan]

7. Reminds me of a young Barack Obama. ...

When Bernie comes to Portland, we are gonna party !

[Maedhros]

10. I'll be there! [n/t]

[jamzrockz]

12. Barack Obama?

I say it reminds me more like the Ron Paul campaign of 2008. Lots of enthusiastic supporters but very few of the big more people that really win national elections. Obama had both and Bernie Sander will never get the kind of people that financed Obama's juggernaut campaign.

Sadly. American politics especially national ones comes down to who has the most money. Just look at this and see how eerily it resembles the last Ron Paul campaign. Both old men with very radical ideas that are outside the establishment politics.

[JDPriestly]

15. Bernie's campaign is partly about changing the idea that you have to have corporate money

to wage a winning campaign.

That's why we who support Bernie are planning on working hard to contact voters one by one.

[jamzrockz]

18. I really want to believe that

But I something tells me that it will fizzle and he will just end up endorsing Hillary. I hope I am wrong but I have been disappointed so many times before. Howard Dean was the closest to a grassroot, for the people campaign that had a chance of winning and we saw how the media treated him because of that one scream and then the people abandoned him overnight.

You need lots of money to get the attention of the vast majority of the voters who don't pay attention to to politics or the issues and Bernie doesn't have the money for that.

[SusanCalvin]

23. And it wasn't even a scream.

It was perfectly normal *in* *context*.

[JDPriestly]

27. If "you need lots of money" and 'Bernie doesn't have the money for that." then we are stuck with

Citizens United and corporate rule. That's the end of democracy or even the barest attempt at representative government.

To oppose Citizens United, you have to run with little money and as little corporate support as possible. Bernie is doing that. Anyone who runs and does not try to win without corporate money is simply being hypocritical and untrustworthy. Sooner or later the donors of the corporate money will, like Satan, claim their own.

It's either Bernie Sanders or some other candidate who forgoes corporate money or rule by the richest corporations.

That's our choice this election.

I choose Bernie. And fortunately, I agree with his stances on just about everything. He represents ordinary people like me who work or have worked and gotten by on not that much all our lives. Bernie is my candidate.

[karynnj]

34. it was not the scream

He was supposed to win Iowa and Kerry got over twice as many people for him. If not for the scream, the story would have been that he really could not get enough real votes.

Iowa was the first place people had to really decide and many met both men. A friend from Iowa commented that many people shifted their allegiance as they met the candidates, but his observation was that few shifted from Kerry after they decided in his favor.

[Trajan]

20. Whatever ....

You ain't raining on my parade, no matter how much you try to piss on it ...

You people .... sheeeesh ...

[yellowwoodII]

41. Those Were the Days

I remember well the euphoria that we felt during the Obama campaign. Sort of like back in the hippie days when we had believed that "the times they were a-changin."

And, considering the problems that he inherited and the obstacles that have been thrown in his way and the fact that he's only human, he's fulfilled a lot of our hopes.

[HughBeaumont]

50. Not to mention an obstructionist Teabagger congress for much of his two terms.

Just think how much better off we'd be if these assholes weren't controlling the purse strings.

[kenfrequed]

54. His COS (Rahm Emmanuel) hurt the president badly in his first term.

By pushing him to the middle and not running against the obstructionism it allowed the Republicans to control the spin and the narrative. Had President Obama chosen his communications staff and his Chief of Staff better he could have galvanized better support by going after republicans.

Instead thanks to Rahm-bo and his hippy-punching crap we ended up with weak banking reform (that should have been absolutely conditional for accepting federal bailouts), a stimulus package that was riddled with pointless tax cuts that would have been better spent on infrastructure, and months wasted on wooing Olympia Snowe to support a healthcare reform that she refused to cross the aisle to vote for.

[Eleanors38]

57. "radical?" "outside establishment politics?" Sanders would fit right in with LBJ's domestic policies

Sheesh, I hope not all of the Democratic Party has moved so far to the corporate right.

[bvar22]

70. Exactly!!

Bernie represents a return to the values that made America great.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be[font size=3] established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.[/font]

Among these are:

*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

*The right of every family to a decent home;

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
-- FDR, SOTU, 1944[/font]

Please note that the above are stipulated as Basic Human RIGHTS to be protected by our government,
and NOT as COMMODITIES to be SOLD to Americans by For Profit Corporations.

There was a time in when voting for the Democrat was voting FOR the above values which are mainstream, Democratic, FDR Values....the REASON I joined the Democratic Party
Sadly, this is no longer true.

[Eleanors38]

75. While it is disturbing that some in the Democratic Party call your list "radical,"

more disturbing is the simultaneous denial that these same people are not "progressive," even as they promote No Labels, 3rd Way something or rather out there... I guess old reflexes die hard, even if there is little to show for them.

[treestar]

55. No.

There is no similarity.

Hilarious that the same people who are anti-Obama now try to crown Bernie as the new Obama, but he is no Obama.

[BeanMusical]

58. And I'm glad he isn't.

[Trajan]

60. um ... yeah .. there are ...

LOTS of good people coming to listen to a wonderful orator speak some truth ... the parallels are obvious to those of us who like Obama AND Sanders AND Hillary ...

The haters think I'm one of them ... I am not ... so find another tree to bark at ....

[treestar]

61. Orator eh

Seriously? You're going to make them equal there?

You should not be calling other posters dogs

[Trajan]

64. I should follow your example?

Look at what has become of this place ... thanks to the extreme partisans ....

Don't worry - I'm still voting for Hillary, should she emerge victorious from the primary season ...

I'll ignore her mean spirited followers on DU .... They are a supremely unappealing bunch ....

[treestar]

66. There isn't one nice Hillary supporter on DU?

Not one?

I don't see why we can't all like both candidates. It doesn't make any sense to get mad at people who differ at most on which Democrat it should be.

[Ed Suspicious]

72. Because they are campaigning against each other on two pretty different platforms.

This isn't a love-in, it's a campaign for the direction of our country. It's a campaign for the highest office in the land. Shit is going to be thrown. The love-fest can happen after the primary.

[bvar22]

76. No Obama?

Thank Gawd.
I don't believe the Working Class can survive another "Centrist" or "Moderate Republican from the 80s."
Thats why I voted for Democrats, and worked hard to get them elected back in the 80s.

[Nye Bevan]

77. "No Obama - Thank Gawd".

The guy who saved the economy, banned health insurers from discriminating against pre-existing conditions, and eliminated Osama Bin Laden? Yeah, we really don't want to elect someone like that again.

[bvar22]

78. ...AND, he's been great for the Working Class,

Oh Wait...No he hasn't.

*Korean Free Trade Deal devastating for US Workers

What happened to the 70,000 jobs that the Korea Free Trade deal was supposed to create? They never materialized. Instead, U.S. workers lost 40,000 jobs in the first year of the agreement.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-cohen/koreaus-free-trade-agreem_b_4965492.

*CHARTS: The Amazing Wealth Surge For The Top 0.1 Percent
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/the-amazing-wealth-surge-for-the-top-0-1-percent

*"Obama Admin’s TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks"
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/20/obama-admin%E2%80%99s-tpp-trade-officials-received-hefty-bonuses-from-big-banks

* US Wealthy Have Biggest Piece of Pie Ever Recorded
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/11-6


---All those wonderful things you mentioned up thread mean NOTHING to someone loosing their home.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

74. I'll be there

in spirit...but he's GOT to come to L.A.

[PADemD]

9. Did anyone estimate the crowd size?

[JDPriestly]

28. I read that the police estimate was 5000. I read that here. Can't vouch for it.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

11. That is a great crowd

And I love how a few people pulled up behind the stage in boats!!

K&R GO BERNIE

[CrawlingChaos]

13. Wow! That's awesome!

Go Bernie!

[cantbeserious]

14. I Will No Longer Settle For The Lesser Of Two Corporate Evils - Go Bernie Go

eom

[JDPriestly]

16. K&R.

[lobodons]

17. That's a lot of Ice Cream

Sure hope they know a good ice cream supplier!!

[hopemountain]

24. ben & jerry?

he thanked them at the beginning of his speech.

[karynnj]

35. they also spoke about Bernie

Jerry was incredible.

[TrollBuster9090]

19. That's awesome. And it's about five times bigger than the largest TEA PARTY rally I've ever seen.

I wonder why not one of the MSM outlets I saw covering this showed the rally from this angle? (Well, maybe I don't wonder.)

[JohnnyRingo]

21. I was wondering.

They didn't show it on CSPAN, and I wished they did.

Thanx for posting.

[hopemountain]

25. they showed it on cspan2

although at the end of the live televise there was a disruption of reception & later promised to replay through the evening and include the minute or so of the disruption. you can probably watch it here:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?326214-1/senator-bernie-sanders-ivt-presidential-campaign-announcement

[City Lights]

22. Wow! Great turn out!

[Aerows]

26. But nobody is interested in him

and nobody cares that he's a candidate.

[Kalidurga]

29. This is awesome.

Thanks for posting this is how I found out he will be in Minneapolis this weekend. I will be able to go on Sunday to see him. 1700 people are already signed up.

Minneapolis American Indian Center (Minneapolis, MN)
1530 East Franklin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55404

The event is from 9:30 am to 12 pm on Sunday.

[YOHABLO]

31. I wonder, if Bernie wins the nomination, will Hillary come out and support him?

[Scootaloo]

36. Yes, certainly.

She'll fight all the way to the end like she did in 2008, but at the end, if she's not the winner, she'll back whoever is. The same stands for teh other contestants in this.

[ieoeja]

53. I don't think she'll fight to the end.

If she loses Iowa again I think there will be a sea shift in people's thinking. I believe large numbers of people who would have supported her will start thinking she is unelectable or yesterday's news.

If she loses both Iowa and New Hampshire, I go from believing that to being certain of it. In that event she will take a hammering on Super Tuesday, and walk away as she sees the writing on the wall.

[Sheepshank]

71. Clinton is no Palin....it's not in her nature to walk away from any fight n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. That is one impressive photo

[FairWinds]

33. Can one of you techies . .

come up with a comparison photo of the Bernie event,

with the Rick Santorum one today?

[Scuba]

37. And many more were there in spirit.

[quaker bill]

38. Where have I seen this before?

I recall being a face in a few crowds like that...

[Enthusiast]

40. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

That's a lot of people!

[blackspade]

42. Wow!

[RoccoR5955]

43. This is just the beginning

Give it time, and the crowds will echo those of Obama.

[bigwillq]

44. Nice crowd.

Glad to see folks are coming out to see and hear Bernie.

[malthaussen]

45. Well, after all, he was giving away ice cream. n/t

[madokie]

46. I'm more fired up than I've been since I got word

that I would be leaving VietNam all those years ago. Thats what Bernie Sanders did for me. Gives me Hope, lots of Hope

[lame54]

47. that's way bigger than some John McCain rally's...

and that's after he had the nomination

[NorthCarolina]

48. I wonder if the CIA is keeping it's eye on this crowd as they did at OWS gatherings? eom

[raouldukelives]

52. Bernie! nt

[BeanMusical]

59. Kick and R.

[SalviaBlue]

62. Yesterday on the Ed Show

they played live video of Santorum's rally announcing his jumping in. They never showed the crowd. The camera was always on Santorum. The "crowd" sounded like maybe 30 people.

[magical thyme]

67. it was indoors and looks to be >30 but <1000

https://s.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4rv7na2SHFTUKXbSrdtIgQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0xMDI0O2lsPXBsYW5lO3E9Nzk7dz0xNTM2/

[WillyT]

63. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[SoapBox]

65. Great picture...

And it's ONLY the beginning!

[AzDar]

68. Bernie!

[secondwind]

69. GO BERNIE! I'm with you 100%!!

[cui bono]

73. FEEL THE BERN!!!

[woo me with science]

79. K&R!