(Via Instapundit) OK, quick background: Barack Obama made a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a few days ago. Reports for that speech uncritically repeated a wildly inflated crowd size: 18,000+ in a venue that seats 5,000 (local reporting suggests to me that a crowd estimate of 8 to 9 thousand would have been a good deal more accurate*). It turns out that the sole source for the inflated number was probably none other than Milwaukee mayor (and two-time WI-GOV loser) Tom Barrett: he apparently told an Obama staffer what the crowd size was, who then told the person writing up the WH pool report, and then it got reported uncritically as fact by lazy – or, sure, busy – reporters all over the country.
The reason why I bring this up? It’s because – contrary what you might think, or have been told – it is not actually always true that all you need to control the public perception of a movement or cause is to control how the Media reports on it**. If that were true, then the Tea Party would never have gotten off of the ground, and the Occupy Wall Street movement would have. And if you’re believing your own agitprop… well. Things have a way of sneaking up on people who make that particular error.
Moe Lane
*This post here shows some of the inherent difficulties entailed in trying to assess crowd size from a distance. One reason why I’m not going with the 5,000 number; it seems reasonable that there was a spillover crowd. But if there had been 18K the photo record would have backed that up.
**Mind you, everybody in this business probably has a vested interest in promoting the illusion otherwise: after all, it’s such a great excuse for why somebody lost…
With regards to “spillover crowd”: Pics or it never happened. Trust me, if it HAD happened, there would have been pics.
One reason why I’m not going with the 5,000 number; it seems reasonable that there was a spillover crowd.
Journal Sentinel story:
On the other hand, the photos of the event show empty seats in the arena. It was raining outside. I can’t imagine a large spillover crowd staying out in the rain if there were empty seats inside. Not unless Democrat Obama-worshippers are even stupider than I would have expected.
Okay, maybe there were thousands … If so, we have a way to reduce the number of Democrat voters: shout “Look! Up in the sky! It’s Obama!” during a rainstorm, and they’ll drown like turkeys.
Well, to be fair… if I had decided to go see Bush in 2004, and when I got there it had started to rain, if the weather was warm and the rain not too bad I’d stick around. I mean, it’s the President, right? That’s worth getting a little wet for.
Hell, if Obama ever comes to my hometown I’d probably go see him, and I despise the incompetent so-and-so.