Wall-to-Wall Supporters: It Sure Is Crowded in Here -- or Is It? -WP

[Rose Siding]

This is the time in the political calendar when soothsayers point to the size of crowds at rallies to see which candidate is producing more enthusiasm. The campaigns, well aware of this practice, can't resist putting their thumbs on the scale.

On Tuesday, correspondents from The Washington Post and the Washington Times counted the crowds at President Bush's three stops in Missouri, then compared the actual figure with the official Bush campaign figure:

• Lee's Summit: Actual attendance, 8,500. Bush count, 14,000.
• Sedalia: Actual attendance, 2,200. Bush count, 3,200.
• Columbia: Actual attendance, 8,000 to 9,000. Bush count, 14,000.

It seems that the Bush campaign is inflating its crowd counts by 45 to 75 percent. Some of this may be the result of people walking through metal detectors more than once, but there's clearly some old-fashioned crowd padding going on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6628-2004Sep8.html

[Catfight]

1. 8000 is way too many, let's get that down to 10 zombies. n/t

[Ready4Change]

2. Does the article mention Kerry's numbers?

I'm wondering not just whether Kerry's campaign also pads numbers, but what the scale of those numbers are, compared with Bush's?

[UpInArms]

4. they offered no examples of Kerry overstating crowds

just used that nasty editorial brushing of pluralizing the word "campaigns".

Don't you just love the "libral" media?

[RayOfHope]

8. When Kerry came to Jeff City

I spoke to a MO US Congressman who had attended with him. He said it was the biggest crowd he had ever seen at the capitol, and Secret Service estimates of the crowd were 20,000+. However, local media only reported a 'crowd of several thousand'.

[JuniorPlankton]

3. Sometimes you misunderestimate

sometimes you misoverestimate...
When it comes to the number of your supporters it's over
When it is the cost of the Medicare bill it's under.

Bastards!

[frylock]

9. dan bartlett would just say they misoverspoke

[progressivebydesign]

5. But.. but.. NPR said...

..that the Columbia event featured "OVER 10,000 cheering, flag-waving, enthusiastic Bush supporters!!!" And you know how liberal NPR is /sarcasm off. Oh, and NPR reported in the same breath, "John Kerry spoke to a group in Missouri" No lie.

Perhaps the journalists are tired of being treating like enemies, amateurs, and worse. Now that they are being asked to provide racial data get debate credentials, they'll wake up even more.

[graphixtech]

6. they fail to acknowledge these citizens (video of Lee's Summit protest)

http://digitalstyledesigns.com/pages/movieMedia.htm

Tuesday's 250 PROTEST Bush in Missouri
On September 7th, President Bush made a campaign visit to my town of Lee's Summit, Missouri. I decided to drop by to see if there were any Americans who would be protesting.

The people shown in this video reflect what a growing number of Americans feel about this difficult time in our history.

Here is a short report:
At 7:45 am I arrived at the Lee's Summit Bush protest. I was very disappointed to see only six lone protesters. Then out of the horizon, a steady stream of citizens walked up, each waving a pink slip. The citizens represented the diverse concerns of Democrats from labor unions, students, anti-war, women's issues, 911Truth, and Libertarians.

The protesters gathered at the side of the street, directly across from the State
Police headquarters and the LSHS Stadium where Bush was speaking.
The country music which is streaming from the background emits from the Stadium.The police were polite; no big conflicts happened and there were no arrests.

A protester was told that the semi trailers and huge white buses (shown at the end) were parked in their front locations to "shield" the Republicans
from the view of the protesters.

The short QT video production is featured here:
http://digitalstyledesigns.com/pages/movieMedia.htm

edit:
earlier General DU discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2329245

[tom_paine]

7. Standard Totalitarian procedure. Nazis, Soviet, and Busheviks inflate

(or defalte, if that is what's best for THE PARTY)

all numbers.

[Emboldened Chimp]

10. NYC Protest: Actual attendance: 500,000. Bush count, tens of thousands.

[tblue37]

11. Check out the pictures.

The pics of Bush's crowds are cropped to make it seem that the place is packed. I have seen side-by-side cropped and uncropped shots showing, in one, what looks like a packed crowd, but in the other, that same "crowd" crammed together in the middle of otherwise empty bleachers.

On the other hand, the shots of Kerry's and Edwards' crowds are distance shots, showing a shoulder-to-shoulder sea of people, stretching far into the distance.

Besides, how big a crowd can Bush possibly draw when the campaign has to vet everyone and get loyalty oaths from all those who don't have a history of Republican voter registration? Can you imagine screening 60,000 people, which is the size of the crowd Kerry drew in Portland?