2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumMany Are Shocked By The Size Of The Crowds Bernie Sanders Is Drawing
17 Jun 2015 at 01:34 ET
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has drawn huge crowds recently. He packed Drake Universitys auditorium, drew 1,000 people in New Hampshire, and the attendance was estimated at 5,000 at a stop in Minnesota.
Sanders has indicated that the numbers have surprised him. He told NPR that hes, Stunned. Stunned. I mean I had to fight my way to get into the room. Standing room only. Minneapolis was literally beyond belief.
Sanders isnt the only one who has been stunned. Kurt Meyer, a tri-county Democratic Party chair in Iowa, helped host a Sanders rally in his area. When we had something in excess of 300 people show up, I was astonished, Meyer told NPR. Meyer sent a text to a one of Clintons senior people in Iowa indicating that Sanders was potentially a lot closer to the frontrunner than he appears.
That same story quotes John McBride, a 24-year-old who drove 3 hours to see Sanders speak. McBride identifies student debt as a major issue for him and was drawn to Sanders vision of a debt-free college experience. When I meet somebody, I ask them their name, where they went to school, said McBride, Where they studied and how much debt they have.
Bernie Sanders has climbed in recent polls, grabbing 32% in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton stayed ahead at 44% in the same poll.
more...
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/many-are-shocked-by-the-size-of-the-crowds-bernie-sanders-is-drawing/
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Feel the Bern!!
Bernie People are waking up and getting ready to rock and roll.
Bernie: The Real Deal
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)he booked a 2,600-seat gymnasium and, last i checked, twice as many people had signed up.
i am so excited
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Have a great time.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)went lame stream on Hubert Humphrey in 1961 and the crowds were huge. And the Kennedy Machine spent millions to shut us down.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Bernie generates real, actual optimism, because he is honest with the electorate.
DFW
(54,379 posts)A certain friend of mine did this 12 years ago, and got himself on the covers of TIME and Newsweek the same week. Same optimism, same enthusiasm, same "no way he'll ever be elected." Umm, come to think of it, he WASN'T elected, but the buzz he generated did translate out to some really great things later on, and he, too, was a transplanted New Yorker living in Burlington. History never repeats itself in exactly the same way, either. So, no, I'm not at all shocked.
If things turn out in a year exactly as anyone is predicting now, THEN I'll be shocked.
swilton
(5,069 posts)Bernie's surge is already moved to South Carolina where event organizers have been forced to move his presentation to a larger venue.
On edit: Although I'm not shocked, I'm not surprised that the typically out of touch 'inside the beltway' establishment missed the train coming down the tracks.... They have typically mis-predicted some of the most major political events happening since grandma was in booties! i.e., They expected the Iraqis to greet US soldiers with candy and flowers! They missed predicting the fall of the Soviet Union....