people at Iowa rallys

[fj45lvr]

recently Paul was in Iowa and they reported crowds of 300 and 700 respectively...

Doesn't that seem rather low?? I would think that there would be much larger crowds.

What is the take on this.

I am also surprised in general that for example, all Republican Candidates only recieved such a small amount of donations in the third quarter report rom military (around 80k)

It seems like the general population really doesn't seem to care a whole lot about the primary.

[Buffalo Bruce]

I went to the Friday Iowa State rally. 300 seats were set up. It turn into an overflow crowd. An additional 300-400 people, all standing, were accommodated when the back wall was opened up to another room. I didn't heard about the Saturday rally in Des Moines until Thursday. It either was not advertised or it was set up with short notice. I knew other people who couldn't attend on Friday because of work who were never aware of a Saturday rally.

[DXDoug]

Iowa's not too populated just depends where you go. So id say thats a great turn out! :D

[risiusj]

Keep in mind that 6:00 pm on a Friday is not an optimal time for most people to wander over and hear about politics.

[Richandler]

More than any of the other candidates even on a low end.

[Psyclone]

I don't think that 650 people at a 6 pm Friday rally on a college campus when there is no home football game the next day constitutes a small crowd. The same week that Ron Paul came, Hillary, Newt Gingrich, Tancredo, John Cox, Obama, and Edwards came to speak at Iowa State, all with better time slots than Dr. Paul and all with smaller crowds (as far as I'm aware: I heard 300 for Hillary, 50 for Tancredo, 200 for Gingrich, and the others were at some sort of panel discussion). The original plan was that 150 people might show up, but we got the biggest room we could find when we saw it was going to take off. We also got mega national and regional press coverage (MSNBC, Time Magazine, Reason magazine, Des Moines Register, Ames Tribune, Iowa State Daily). I think the Ames rally, anyway, was a triumph, and deserves to be treated as such.

[Bossobass]

In my two trips to Iowa, I was seriously disappointed in the apathy of Iowans. I expected to be met with a lot more political savvy, it being the big Iowa Caucus state and all.

Iowa is mostly hype when it comes to politics, IMHO. The GOP machine is in control there. I mean, c'mon...Romney won the straw poll. :rolleyes:

All things considered, 700 is a good crowd at this stage.

Just my opinion from what I observed.

Bosso