Sen. John McCain, way behind in national polls and struggling to defend a state that’s normally a lock for GOP presidential candidates, campaigned in Wilmington yesterday. The rally at Cape Fear Community College was notable for a couple of things. First, the size of the crowd. While Sen. Obama routinely speaks to crowds of 20,000 or more, and Gov. Palin has been drawing 10,000 or more to her rallies, McCain often has a hard time attracting similar numbers of followers; the Wilmington rally, for instance, drew around 3,000 to 3,500 people, including those who stood outside the auditorium. Second, McCain’s coattails are considered so short in this suddenly purple state, no other major Republican candidates — specifically, Sen. Liddy Dole and would-be governor Pat McCrory — took the stage with McCain. In the past, whenever a GOP presidential candidate came to North Carolina, other Republican office seekers would cling so closely to him, you would have thought they were conjoined twins. Not so this time around; Ol’ Johnny and his robotic moneybags housemate looked pretty lonely up there.
This article appears in Oct 14-21, 2008.
The reason for the number attending Palin and McCain rallies is a simple one — the Republican rallies require a ticket to the event, whereas many of the Democratic rallies don’t. I attended the Sarah Palin rally in Greenville last week; the stadium only held 10,000, and people were outside begging for extra tickets. The tickets that we had at my local Repub headquarters — 3 hours away from the rally, mind you — went like hotcakes.
Also, both McCrory and Dole attended the Sarah Palin rally. Has Bev Perdue attended any of the Obama rallies? I don’t think she has, and in fact, during one of the early debates, when asked if she would campaign in NC with Obama, Perdue declined to answer.
North Carolina is not a swing state, regardless of what the polls say. McCain may not win the election, but he can count on NC.
Another reason Republicans have less people at their rallies is that most of their supporters are at WORK….can’t say the same for Democratic supporters….