At this link, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press, you can see a panning 360-degree crowd shot from last night's Obama rally at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Something that's neat about a panoramic view is that it cuts through all the stage management. No one can say well, they arranged the cameras to avoid all the empty seats. No one can say well, they strategically positioned the crowd to make it look more diverse in terms of race, age, or gender. What you get is simple reality.
So you can draw your own conclusions. For my part, I thought it was a pretty impressive turnout, the kind of numbers it usually takes a world-renowned megaband like the Decembrists to generate. Truth be told, I barely noticed the crowd as I was too focused on all those beautiful Stanley Cup banners.
A little anecdote in the name of comparing and contrasting. A few weeks ago, my wife and her friends took our little toddlers to the local science center here in New Jersey. When I asked how it went, she told me it was sort of a hassle because there was a bunch of media and Secret Service on account of John McCain making an appearance the very same day at the very same science center.
Gosh, I said, that timing kind of sucks, was the place too crowded for you guys to do anything? Actually no, she replied, other than the media it didn't seem like many people were there at all, just the usual groups of schoolkids.
It almost seems unfair when one candidate is filling the Joe Louis Arena while the other candidate can't even fill up the Liberty Science Center. You wonder if it's too late for the RNC to move their convention from that big arena in St. Paul to, say, the local Knights of Columbus hall.
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