Cornell Law Professor William A. Jacobson has a reader, Tim, of his Legal Insurrection blog who attended the Romney-Ryan rally earlier today in High Point, NC and provided the photo above of the line of attendees trying to get into the event.
“I have never been to a rally, but the picture in my head did not include a line to get off the exit, a half mile walk to the line and then a multiple block line. Consider me heartened,” Tim told Jacobson. Note that Tim was attending his first-ever political rally.
As with the unexpectedly large crowds lining the streets yesterday of downtown Manassas, Virginia, the throngs who turned out in the Tarheel State for Romney-Ryan and big, noisy crowds elsewhere as the duo have made their rounds since the runningmate announcement early Saturday, may be an indicator of a significant enthusiasm edge for the Republican presidential ticket.
If that is the case – and the evidence (outside of a few polls measuring “intensity”) thus far is mostly anecdotal – it could be a sign that the 2012 electorate echoes that of 2010, which produced the biggest GOP congressional victory since Grover Cleveland was in the White House. That could also be the biggest obstacle facing President Obama as he seeks a second term.
Go here for more from Jacobson.
NYT cites ‘half-full’ Obama fund-raiser
Romney-Ryan officials are also pointing to the contrast in fund-raising numbers over the weekend. Late Sunday, they circulated a statement claiming to have raised $4.7 million since the Ryan announcement was made Saturday.
And they point to a New York Times reporter’s tweet that described a $51-admission fundraiser in Chicago for Obama being “half-full.”
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of The Washington Examiner.
