There’s nothing like the hometown to get a politician feeling on top of the world. When Paul Ryan headed home as Mitt Romney’s running mate this weekend, a “massive” crowd greeted him like a homecoming hero, despite having only hours to coordinate it:
The largest crowd of the campaign so far for a Mitt Romney event welcomed home favorite son Rep. Paul Ryan at a massive rally here in the congressman’s district Sunday night, pushing the GOP’s vice presidential nominee to tears as he took the stage, setting off cheers with two simple words:
“Hi mom.” …
“I’m a Wisconsinite through and through,” Ryan said to cheers from a crowd which contained many members of Ryan’s extended family, and which the campaign estimated to be more than ten thousand strong, likely the largest turnout ever for a Romney event.
Some estimates had the crowd size as high as 13,000. But you know who else had a homecoming? The man at the top of the other ticket, Barack Obama. He came to Chicago for a long-planned fundraiser only hours after Ryan generated the huge crowd in Wisconsin. Tickets started at $51 a pop, celebrating the President’s birthday a week earlier. The hometown crowds must really have been huge, considering the size of the city in comparison to Ryan’s less-populous district, right? Er …
Just to clarify, tix *started* at $51. Obama campaign sez event was sold out, but room is about half full. Hmmm.
— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) August 12, 2012
There may have been a reason for that:
The invitation to the president's birthday fundraiser today in Chicago. http://t.co/H3ssJCeM
— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) August 12, 2012
https://twitter.com/kevinmeyers/status/234629654647029760
@kevinmeyers You're the second person to say that.
— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) August 12, 2012
Politico tried to scoff at Kantor’s first-person report:
But the crowd for the afternoon fundraiser at the Bridgeport Art Center totaled 1,000, an Obama campaign official said – more than the 850-person estimate the campaign offered earlier in the weekend. Tickets for the Gen44 fundraiser, targeted at younger supporters, started at $51, but many were more expensive.
And, to this reporter and several others in the White House press pool, the room seemed plenty full. There was empty space at the back of the large loft space during and immediately after the president’s remarks, but the crowd was densely packed to get close to the stage at the front of the room where Obama spoke.
Kantor wasn’t buying it:
@DRUDGE_REPORT Admission *began* at $51, to clarify. Obama campaign said event was sold out, though the room looked abt 1/2 full to me.
— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) August 12, 2012
Too bad Obama comes from such a small hometown, or he might have done better than one-thirteenth of the crowd Ryan attracted.
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