RK ARCHIVE - They Lied About the Crowd Size in Fairfax Too?!?

8,000 people in Fairfax or 23,000 people? The Fire Marshall told them that or he did not tell them that? Sunnis or Shi'ites? For the Bridge to Nowhere or against the Bridge to Nowhere? Campaign staffed by lobbyists or against the influence of lobbyists? Again, as the Obama campaign asked today, "is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?"

Comments

how 8 k became 23 k (pvogel - 9/13/2008 3:16:19 PM)

My guess.... 8 k showed up,
and 15000 other folk downloaded the Invite, putting their emails into Mccains domain( i did not!)
And the campaign added them in.

Palin anagrams to Plain and do we need a plain lady as vp???

Using Rovian Math, I Think 23k Is Correct (norman swingvoter - 9/13/2008 8:12:57 PM)

Using the more detailed procedures of Rovian Math, 8k went in and 8k were seated or standing. 7k then left, leaving 1k inside, who stayed for hours trying to get one last glimpse of sarah, and missed the exit count. The total reported was 23k, which was actually 1k low.

Local news (sjxylib - 9/13/2008 3:48:50 PM)

The Local news reported it at about 10K, I was surprised at the wide margin between the different reports.

Is there anything the McCain Campaign will not lie about???

Obama campaign says... (Lowell - 9/13/2008 3:49:00 PM)

We will take no lectures from John McCain who is cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern Presidential campaign history. His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office his is seeking.

Also wanted to add.... (Bryan Scrafford - 9/13/2008 4:29:15 PM)

...that this wouldn't have been that big of a deal if the estimate was the only thing that was off. It seems as though there is always someone who will inflate numbers, whether intentionally or not, when it comes to crowds over a couple thousand.The thing that was wrong was that the McCain campaign attributed the numbers to an independent source who actually didn't provide them.

All we want from both candidates is the truth. This seems to be yet another occasion when the McCain campaign appears to be taking some liberties with the facts. That's truly unfortunate.

Serial dishonesty (bamboo - 9/13/2008 5:35:29 PM)

The serial dishonesty and fraudulence of the McCain campaign has moved beyond partisan comment, or should have done so by now. Unfortunately, just yesterday morning on NPR I heard one of their senior political reporters say that Obama "seemed" to be saying things that insulted Palin (the lipstick quote)and then commented that it was important for McCain to win this election, hence the dishonesty. I don't think she was saying that McCain SHOULD win the election, only that lying and distortion is what happens when there's an important race to be won. When the MSM can't and won't call a spade a spade, and then explains away the lack of scruples as the way the game is played, how can we expect Joe Six-Pack to get it? THe answer is: we can't. So there's a lot of work to be done in the next 52 days, and it's got to include shaming the MSM into doing their part. Or I'm afraid our democracy is sunk.

I call the radio station (Teddy - 9/13/2008 6:30:06 PM)

whenever I hear lopsided presentation of the "news" or when an absolute lie is announced as if truth, even when done by an "opinion commentator," if I am where I can make the call. I keep the WTOP phone number right by my phone and call their news room immediately. Usually I am very polite, very direct and specific, and utterly intransigent in demanding correction, better balance, and/or presentation of the other side (always the Democratic side is the one being slighted), and I request that the "balanced" other view or the truth be provided at a decent hour in the same time frame (and not at 2 AM a day later). Occasionally the error is so egregious and infuriating I give 'em hell (but no swearing--- the English language really provides plenty of vigorously insulting words that enable someone to give an offender a good round pasting). My thrust is that I am sure the station wants to do a good, honest job, so I am helping them. Interestingly, sometimes it actually seems to work, and the very next time the news comes up again, the presentation has improved. If more of us indignant liberals made such calls, who knows what improvement might appear.

Republican Estimate (seamusotoole - 9/13/2008 8:13:38 PM)

Isn't it amazing how the Republicans spin their numbers and state that 26,000 people showed up for their rally? I was there and I can promise you their number was inflated. Funny then how they claimed that only a couple of dozen protesters were there, when there were over 100 of us. They inflate their numbers and deflate ours for both convenience and deceit. So what else is new?
Same old story different day!!!!!

Mary Lee Cerillo

An exageration or a lie? (Glant - 9/14/2008 1:24:32 AM)

There is a difference between a simple exageration and a lie. In this case, because it seems that there is hard data available that would clearly show whether the number of attendees was closer to 5000 or 25000, I have to believe that the overstatement is an intentional fabrication, i.e., a lie.

Many times with outdoor events the crowd size is really a guess with minimal data to back it up. But with the Fairfax rallythere is some data that can be used to make a some reasonable estimates. Specifically, most of the attendees were bussed in from a nearby parking lot. The Republicans paid for the busses and therefore know how many trips each bus make and what the capacity of each bus was.

If the Republicans wanted to release a believable number, they could simply release the number of bus trips, the capacity of the busses, and an estimate of the ratio of walkers to riders entering the park. At least that way there would be a basis for their claim. As it stands, it seems that the McCain campaign intentionally misled reporters.

Again.