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[Rokke]

Obama's Chillicothe Rally
Posted by commontator, Today, 01:38 PM

This morning at 10:00Am Obama appeared on the court house steps at Paint and Main streets in Chillicothe Ohio. They only needed one block of a 4 lane city street to hold all those that came to see him. The Block is about 600 feet long and 4 lanes and two sidewalks wide.

Back in 1960 I covered LBJ as VP when he visited Chillicothe and spoke from the same site. It is worth noting that in 1960 LBJ filled the intersection of Paint and Main streets with people as well as half a block of South Main street and the first block of North Paint street. This time only one block of North Paint was used. I would say Obama drew less than half the crowd that LBJ as VP candidate did in 1960. This was not a good draw for Obama.

In 2004 the five or six thousand people that Main and Paint streets could hold was not enough for the 14,500 five hundred people that wanted to see Bush. So his rally was held at the Ross County Fair grounds. Tickets were required and they were all gone 2 days before the rally. We were emailing people in 2004 telling them there would be NO tickets available at the gates so please don't come if you don't have tickets.

The Obama campaign was emailing people as late as Thursday evening (the night before) saying please come.. there will be no tickets required and it is a first come first served rally.

I drove around the blocked off area and was amazed that about 20 percent of the audience space was reserved for the traveling media. They even had tents set up for the media in case of bad weather.

I looked for parking spots. There were tons of empty parking spaces during the Obama speech within 2 city blocks of where he was speaking. I drove the closest open streets all around the rally location. I was never more than one block from his audience. There were empty parking places east, north, and south of the site. The west side was nearly full of cars. That is in the direction the more affluent people live. That is very telling. I could have parked and paid my city utility bill at city hall which is less than a block south of where Obama was speaking, but I did not bring the bill and my check book because I thought there would be no place to park. South and east are where the working class people mostly live. Tons of empty parking places on those streets scream trouble among the working class for Obamay. Some of the Democrats were saying 4,000 people but I would bet a ton of money it was less than 3,000.

Consider that in 2004 Bush drew 14,500 people. Bush in 2004 came close 2/3 as many Democrats as Obama drew today. There were 1,400 Registered Democrats at the bush Rally I think there were maybe 2,500 to 3,000 total people at the Obama RALLY.

I watched as the crowd left. There was a line of cars going out north Bridge street ... toward Columbus and points North. So perhaps as many as 1,000 of his perhaps 3000 were not even from Chillicothe. I had signed up on the Obama web site for Obama news and last evening I was still getting invitations to the Obama rally. In 2004 we were sending out the word that there were no more tickets for the Bush rally and there would be NO tickets at the door.. So if you didn't have a ticket to the Bush rally please don't come you will not get in was what we had in both emails and on the web.

I went on the Chillicothe News Paper blog site where the local editor was taking blog questions. About 10 percent were from McCain supporters complaining about the pro Obama media and he was getting about one comment every 3 or 4 minutes. That is a very slow blog site.

All in all, if one takes out all the media and there were a ton of media here with all the networks and cable channels with satellite uploads going on, this was not much of a rally For Obama.

Obama, in his speech, blamed Bush for the bad local job situation.. as did our Democratic Governor.. Not remembering that voters gave us a Democratic governor to fix the job situation 2 years ago and he has not accomplished diddly. I think the people that voted for Strickland for Governor remember why they did it.. and "its all Bush's fault is not going to hack it.

My estimation is that the local Democratic party is not all that Obama Gung Ho. I noted that Obama had an out of work factory worker who has been laid off at Mead Paper mill and then twice by the Kenworth truck factory introduce him. Normally the mayo, the city council president and county commissioners would have been fighting over which one got to introduce the candidate. The most prominent local Democrat at the event was a Black Preacher and activist Democrat. He lead cheers of O B A M A OBAMA... before the event.

Our Democrat Mayor and the Democrat county commissioners and city council members were there but kept in the background. That speaks volumes to me.

Hillary defeated Obama in Ross County by 12,000 plus votes to 3,000 plus votes. I think the local mayor and his fellow elected Democrats must have read the primary election returns.

One other factor. Of those that visited the Chillicothe Gazette web site and took the poll, 25 percent said they attended the rally, 61 percent said they could have but would not attend an Obama rally and 14 percent said they would have attended if they could have.

I could not find an estimate of the crowd in the media and no pictures of the crowd on line. The only reference was in the local paper and they said the area "around the podium" was nearly full of people who were given Obama signs to wave.

If Chillicothe is still the bellwether city for the state of Ohio... Obama is not going to do all that well in Ohio.

[ciapilot]

The crowd didn't look too big. Most of the shots were close-up head shots, with no audience.

[Rokke]

Great report Commontator. You won't see this in the MSM.

[Snoozen]

Great report!

[quantim]

Some pictures: No crowds to speak of, all close-ups.

http://afp.google.co...t6P0Q5KCns6GcuA

http://ap.google.com...PFu3dQD93NSJ4G1

http://ap.google.com...lig0FgD93NT6S02

Obama Draws Large Crowd in Chillicothe

Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama drew a crowd estimated to have been around 5,000 people to his Chillicothe Rally Friday morning.



Here is a photo gallery of 28 photos (More people at our local pumpkinfest)

[Habeus]

How can this guy be winning?

[ciapilot]

quantim, on Oct 10 2008, 03:40 PM, said:

Some pictures: No crowds to speak of, all close-ups.

I think I saw Commontator's car driving around casing the scene in photo #12 of that gallery.
(kidding, of course)

[commontator]

Rokke, on Oct 10 2008, 05:03 PM, said:

Great report Commontator. You won't see this in the MSM.

Back in 1960 I was working at Chillicothe Station WBEX and its owner was a prominent local Democrat... He was Mayor of Chillicothe at the time. I put the Marti transmitter in the bosses big Lincoln and we drove LBJ from the airport to the rally. It was accurately estimated that LBJ drew about 6 or 7 thousand people. Obama's crowd was in one block of paint street. LBJ was not on a podium at the lower level of the court house like Obama. LBJ was about 15 feet higher than the Obama position and about 70 or 80 feet to the south of Obama's Position. There were at least 3 thousand people where Obama's crowd was, plus another 4 thousand on South paint street and another couple of thousand on Main street. That is about 5 or six thousand people LBJ drew and Obama did not.

It is also worth noting that Bush drew 18,000 people in Columbus and 14,500 in Chillicothe in 2004. Obama just drew 10,000 in Columbus and less than 3,000 in Chillicothe.

One other puzzling fact. McCain keeps campaigning in Iowa. What do his internal polls show in Iowa? Why would he spend precious resources in a state he supposedly can't win. Is it a head fake to try to get Obama to defend Iowa or are the media polls wrong and Iowa is in play.

I know for a fact that the Ohio polls are way off. And I would bet the McCain polls show the true nature of the situations in several states.

I read stories about Obama being ahead in the polls so he is playing it safe. But I know for a fact that Obama dares not go specific. If he does he will lose votes no matter what position he takes. If he wants to restore the auto industry he will please auto workers but he will tick off the environmentalists. If he calls for more drilling he will please working class Democrats but tick off the far left. Obama dares not take the road of specific recommendations on real problems. No democrat can.

When his campaign says he is playing it safe because he is ahead, that is not the reason. He was playing it safe when he and Hillary were neck and neck in the primaries. He has to or he loses votes.

Obama is putting a positive thing that candidates never do for positive reasons.

[Casino67]

commontator, on Oct 10 2008, 11:07 PM, said:

Rokke, on Oct 10 2008, 05:03 PM, said:

Great report Commontator. You won't see this in the MSM.

Back in 1960 I was working at Chillicothe Station WBEX and its owner was a prominent local Democrat... He was Mayor of Chillicothe at the time. I put the Marti transmitter in the bosses big Lincoln and we drove LBJ from the airport to the rally. It was accurately estimated that LBJ drew about 6 or 7 thousand people. Obama's crowd was in one block of paint street. LBJ was not on a podium at the lower level of the court house like Obama. LBJ was about 15 feet higher than the Obama position and about 70 or 80 feet to the south of Obama's Position. There were at least 3 thousand people where Obama's crowd was, plus another 4 thousand on South paint street and another couple of thousand on Main street. That is about 5 or six thousand people LBJ drew and Obama did not.

It is also worth noting that Bush drew 18,000 people in Columbus and 14,500 in Chillicothe in 2004. Obama just drew 10,000 in Columbus and less than 3,000 in Chillicothe.

One other puzzling fact. McCain keeps campaigning in Iowa. What do his internal polls show in Iowa? Why would he spend precious resources in a state he supposedly can't win. Is it a head fake to try to get Obama to defend Iowa or are the media polls wrong and Iowa is in play.

I know for a fact that the Ohio polls are way off. And I would bet the McCain polls show the true nature of the situations in several states.

I read stories about Obama being ahead in the polls so he is playing it safe. But I know for a fact that Obama dares not go specific. If he does he will lose votes no matter what position he takes. If he wants to restore the auto industry he will please auto workers but he will tick off the environmentalists. If he calls for more drilling he will please working class Democrats but tick off the far left. Obama dares not take the road of specific recommendations on real problems. No democrat can.

When his campaign says he is playing it safe because he is ahead, that is not the reason. He was playing it safe when he and Hillary were neck and neck in the primaries. He has to or he loses votes.

Obama is putting a positive thing that candidates never do for positive reasons.

"One other puzzling fact. McCain keeps campaigning in Iowa." What the heck is Obama's attraction to Iowans?

[spikeytx86]

commontator, on Oct 10 2008, 10:07 PM, said:

Rokke, on Oct 10 2008, 05:03 PM, said:

Great report Commontator. You won't see this in the MSM.

Back in 1960 I was working at Chillicothe Station WBEX and its owner was a prominent local Democrat... He was Mayor of Chillicothe at the time. I put the Marti transmitter in the bosses big Lincoln and we drove LBJ from the airport to the rally. It was accurately estimated that LBJ drew about 6 or 7 thousand people. Obama's crowd was in one block of paint street. LBJ was not on a podium at the lower level of the court house like Obama. LBJ was about 15 feet higher than the Obama position and about 70 or 80 feet to the south of Obama's Position. There were at least 3 thousand people where Obama's crowd was, plus another 4 thousand on South paint street and another couple of thousand on Main street. That is about 5 or six thousand people LBJ drew and Obama did not.

It is also worth noting that Bush drew 18,000 people in Columbus and 14,500 in Chillicothe in 2004. Obama just drew 10,000 in Columbus and less than 3,000 in Chillicothe.

One other puzzling fact. McCain keeps campaigning in Iowa. What do his internal polls show in Iowa? Why would he spend precious resources in a state he supposedly can't win. Is it a head fake to try to get Obama to defend Iowa or are the media polls wrong and Iowa is in play.

I know for a fact that the Ohio polls are way off. And I would bet the McCain polls show the true nature of the situations in several states.

I read stories about Obama being ahead in the polls so he is playing it safe. But I know for a fact that Obama dares not go specific. If he does he will lose votes no matter what position he takes. If he wants to restore the auto industry he will please auto workers but he will tick off the environmentalists. If he calls for more drilling he will please working class Democrats but tick off the far left. Obama dares not take the road of specific recommendations on real problems. No democrat can.

When his campaign says he is playing it safe because he is ahead, that is not the reason. He was playing it safe when he and Hillary were neck and neck in the primaries. He has to or he loses votes.

Obama is putting a positive thing that candidates never do for positive reasons.

Great points and info Commontator!

I think McCain is campaigning in IOWA because I think his internals are showing a possibillity. Why try and fake out obama to blow a little extra money in Iowa when he has much more cash then McCain? I think McCain might have a chance thare.

[clearvision]

Thanks for checking this out Commontator! Always great to have a first hand report.

[HaroldCHutchison]

Casino67, on Oct 10 2008, 11:19 PM, said:

"One other puzzling fact. McCain keeps campaigning in Iowa." What the heck is Obama's attraction to Iowans?

One word: ethanol.

[ync1994]

Dear commontator! Thank you for your input here. So nice to hear from you!

I want to add one little comment to your observation that BO did not have alot of people at his rally. That's cuz many, many of his voters are dead, illegal, non-existent people, fraudulent, homeless, etc. In other words he'll still get plenty of votes. It's just that "they" can't show up in person to his rallies.

The voter fraud we're hearing about is mind-boggling.