The Romney camp says 30,000 people attended the rally in West Chester OH on Friday. The secret service said about 15,000 people went through the metal detectors. Bush had 40-55,000 in the same location in 2004.
The Romney boast was widely repeated in national and regional media, and the red blogosphere. It was even used to justify panic-based poll unskewing.
The Romney campaign points to an estimate by West Chester Fire Chief Tony Goller for the 30,000 number. But a local police officer estimated the number at 18,000. However, the Secret Service said about 15,000 went through the metal detectors. (Scroll to 6th 'graph.) Go figure, devices that every attendee passed through one at a time, underestimated by half. They're in the tank for Obama!
Photos below the cheddar corn.
Granted, 15,000 is still a lot of people. All agree it's Romney's biggest crowd ever.
Romney spoke to a crowd of 30,000, according to West Chester Fire Chief Tony Goller â making it the largest rally of the campaign, said Romney spokesman Chris Maloney.
But why lie? Well, of course it's second nature to them. But while 15,000 is big, it's not
that big, especially considering that it's the best Romney has ever done. It's not that big considering that
Bush had 40-55,000 people in the same location in 2004. I believe Palin had 30,000 there last cycle, but I'm still trying to confirm.
This is 15,000 people:
Romney in West Chester Ohio. The rally space seemed to be kind of square and we can see two of the boundaries in this shot. More photos here:
This is 30,000 people:
Obama in Madison WI Oct 4 2012. It's a long rectangular space and this photo doesn't show the part of the crowd to the president's left. Lots more images here.
I can see the difference.
Romney doubled the count. I'm tempted to joke about half-wits and sub-humans.