Monday, December 10, 2007

18,500


(Courtesy: Jason Reed, Reuters)

Computer problems kept me off-line this weekend, so I didnt' get to catch up on the big Oprah Winfrey visit to Des Moines. Barack Obama's campaign counts 18,500 for the crowd. I can't find any long timer who remembers a pre-primary rally that big any place in our state. Can she turn Obama into one of her faithful viewers' favorite things? (BTW, what does Tom Vilsack think of the size of the crowd? Iowa's former gov-turned-clinton-supporter questioned how many Iowans really even watch Oprah's show. BTW, my tv friends say in the Des Moines tv market, Oprah gets its second highest ratings in the country).

The Clinton campaign is circulating a CBS/New York Times poll that shows more people think Bill Clinton's visit will positively influence their vote towards Hillary than Oprah's visit will move them to Obama. The Clinton camp is not talking about how that same poll shows that Clinton has lost nearly half her lead nationally over Obama.






4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else think the sound system left alot to be desired? Wouldn't a big screen TV have been nice? I couldn't see any of the speakers and had to watch the video online to actually hear what they said even though I was there!

Dave Price said...

I'd bet there were quite a few folks who didn't have the best view of the stage. Probably, a few thousand. Or more.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Wells Fargo Arena holds 18,500. According to Wikipedia, WFA only holds 16,980 in a concert set-up. Do you really think they crammed that many people into Hy-Vee Hall? Or perhaps did that number get a little inflated without anyone in the press calling them on it?

Dave Price said...

No doubt that it's tough to figure attendance. Holding it in the arena sure would have made estimating a lot easier