3000! Do I see 3000? Yup! My biased lenses allows me to see 3000 people attending the Hillary Clinton speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania yesterday where Vice President Joe Biden also made an appearance.
The funny thing about the election campaign so far is how few 360 degree visuals we get of the campaign crowds so the public can actually gauge the turnout for themselves. Your humble correspondent was at a Donald Trump speech last Wednesday at the BB&T Center in the Fort Lauderdale area and it was completely filled up except for the nosebleed rafters which were closed off to the public. I estimate the crowd was about 15,000 but if I am wrong, it couldn't possibly have been less than 10,000. An impressive number either way. However the local Sun-Sentinel newspaper merely reported a crowd size of "thousands." Meanwhile the mainstream media has been reporting that 3000 people appeared at Clinton's Scranton speech. Well, watch a rare 360 degree view of the crowd below and judge for yourself.
Would you say that the section underneath the "Stronger Together" section on the left has about 300 people max? No more people appear to be in the center section so add another 300 people. There is no sitting section on the right and the back is empty except for the press. Add in about 300 people standing in front of the podium and you get under a thousand. Nowhere near 3000 people as has been reported.
Yet that magic 3000 number has been widely reported in the MSM. Here is the CBS News magic number report:
The rally, which was held at an indoor sports facility and drew a crowd of 3,000, was rescheduled last month...
I want to see that magic number again. Fortunately, NBC New York provides us with it:
"He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. It's such a bunch of malarkey," Biden told a crowd of about 3,000 at Riverfront Sports, adding: "He doesn't have a clue."
Uh, speaking of malarkey, Joe. How about the 3000 malarkeys you were speaking to?
Finally, the print media in the form of Thomas Fitzgerald of Philly.Com adds to the magic echo effect.
"He would have loved Stalin," Biden said to laughter and cheers from about 3,000 people at an indoor sports center in this faded mining and industrial center, where he grew up.
Ah, yes. Stalin. I believe he also came up with many magic Potemkin numbers boasting of Soviet progress.
Exit question: Are there any other citizen videographers out there willing to attend campaign events of both major candidates to provide us more 360 degree views of the speech venues?
