Sunday, September 02, 2012 12:09:58 PM
Obama campaign officially launches in half-empty arena
A picture, they say, is worth 1,000 words. Among the thousand words suggested by this photograph are pathetic and yawn. The image is the half-empty (Team Obama would say “half-full”) Schottenstein Center at Ohio State University on Saturday. The president was there in a futile attempt to recapture lightning in bottle as he officially kicked off his re-election campaign (which unofficially began last year around this time).
The photo was posted to Twitter by Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams, who tweeted “Not the ‘overflow’ crowd” Obama was expecting, especially considering the venue: the must-win state of Ohio.
Breitbart’s Alexander Marlow cites a Columbus Dispatch article noting that event “organizers moved people from seats to the arena floor in front of the dais to project fullness to television audiences.” One wonders if they also artificially generated crowd noise to simulate enthusiasm over a rally that, in the words of the New York Times, “had the feeling of a concert by an aging rock star: a few supporters were wearing faded ‘Hope’ and Obama 2008 T-shirts.”
This time, instead of grandiose promises of how he will tame the weather, heal the infirm, and employ the unemployable, Obama spoke of “inheriting” (still!) a severe economic crisis, of ending (not winning) the war in Iraq, and of taking out Osama bin Laden.
This is not the first time that Obama has played to a half-empty house. Last June (long before his re-election campaign began) he filled 980 of 2,200 seats at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts in Miami at a fundraiser, tickets for which started at a modest $44.
Last October, at a “non-campaign” event paid for with taxpayer money, he suffered greater embarrassment when he needed to prompt the audience to applaud.
http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-campaign-officially-launches-half-empty-arena
A picture, they say, is worth 1,000 words. Among the thousand words suggested by this photograph are pathetic and yawn. The image is the half-empty (Team Obama would say “half-full”) Schottenstein Center at Ohio State University on Saturday. The president was there in a futile attempt to recapture lightning in bottle as he officially kicked off his re-election campaign (which unofficially began last year around this time).
The photo was posted to Twitter by Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams, who tweeted “Not the ‘overflow’ crowd” Obama was expecting, especially considering the venue: the must-win state of Ohio.
Breitbart’s Alexander Marlow cites a Columbus Dispatch article noting that event “organizers moved people from seats to the arena floor in front of the dais to project fullness to television audiences.” One wonders if they also artificially generated crowd noise to simulate enthusiasm over a rally that, in the words of the New York Times, “had the feeling of a concert by an aging rock star: a few supporters were wearing faded ‘Hope’ and Obama 2008 T-shirts.”
This time, instead of grandiose promises of how he will tame the weather, heal the infirm, and employ the unemployable, Obama spoke of “inheriting” (still!) a severe economic crisis, of ending (not winning) the war in Iraq, and of taking out Osama bin Laden.
This is not the first time that Obama has played to a half-empty house. Last June (long before his re-election campaign began) he filled 980 of 2,200 seats at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts in Miami at a fundraiser, tickets for which started at a modest $44.
Last October, at a “non-campaign” event paid for with taxpayer money, he suffered greater embarrassment when he needed to prompt the audience to applaud.
http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-campaign-officially-launches-half-empty-arena
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