Rally before Election Day 2008

This morning President Barack Obama will arrive at Pfitzner stadium for a rally.  He will arrive later in the morning.  The gates will open at 9:30.  Attendees can catch a shuttle from the Fairgrounds in Manassas as parking is limited or they can toture themselves and drive out there.

Obama finished up his last campaign at those very Fairgrounds the night before the election in 2008.

Elena will be representing us at the rally.  Go Elena go.

Mrs. Obama was in Woodbridge about 2 weeks ago and she appeared at The University of Mary Washington last week.  3 weeks ago one of the Obama girls visited Splash Down for a day of fun.  Lafayette’s daughter who works at the water park  talked with her.

Elena will report in via the Bat-phone.

36 Thoughts to “Obama comes to Prince William County”

  1. hmmmmm…no one cares that the Prez is in their own county?

    Elena is escaping now. She is stuck in a sea of people. Obama has come and gone.

    He came in by helicopter I think she said.

  2. It is very hot out there on the baseball field.

    We might have to send the cavalry for her. She is out of water. Good porta potties though.

  3. IVAN

    They were shuttling people over from the Fair Grounds. There was plenty of free water. People started showing up at 6:00 am to get in. The made the Romney rally look like a local Little League fund raiser. (Or perhaps a local Bocs Chairman fund raiser).

    1. They sure had a long wait then. What time did he arrive?

  4. Cato the Elder

    How much per hour does OFA pay you to show up?

  5. IVAN

    His chopper showed up about hour before he took the stage. Mark Warner introduced him and he took the stage at noon and was finished in about a half an hour.

  6. Starryflights

    Obama’s going to kick Romney’s butt here in Virginia.

  7. Mom

    “Elena will be representing us at the rally. ”

    What you mean us Kimosabe.

  8. @IVAN

    TV showed him running out on the stage.

  9. MoM, she wore a sign that said that she was representing MoM. I saw it. She mailed me the picture.

  10. Mom

    Itinerary for Friday evening:

    1. Purchase bottle of 18 yr. old Single Malt
    2. Locate straight razor
    3. Slit wrists
    4. Wait for relief from embarrassing MoM sign

    1. You are a marked person now. The single malt should make it a little better. Oh, and Obama asked about you. :mrgreen:

  11. Need to Know

    One of the cardinal rules of politics is always to hold events at a venue smaller than can fully accommodate the expected turnout. Years ago, I even heard Karl Rove say that in a campaign training workshop I took. Perception and images are the key; not objective reality. Pfitzner stadium holds only a fraction of the number of people who can be accommodated at the Jiffy Lube Live arena or the Fairgrounds, where Obama appeared in 2008. Had Obama gone back to one of those, everyone would be commenting on how his support has dwindled. Obama’s campaign people are smart, and taking a play out of Karl Rove’s book.

    My projection for Virginia – Romney 52%, Obama 47%, others 1%. Starry – give us some numbers and let’s see who comes closest.

    All politics aside, I hope Elena had a good time today. These rallies can be a lot of fun for supporters to see their candidate in person. I’ve been to lots of them but the only time in my life I ever felt awestruck was when I met Ronald Reagan.

  12. blue

    Congratulations to the PWC employees — seriously — who were told to plan for 7,000 while the Obama Campaign handed out 14,000 tickets. Good job! That seems a bit disrespectful to the County and to their supporters doesn’t it? Hold your breath for the check until you turn red.

    1. @Blue

      pssst they weren’t told to plan for 7,000.

  13. Need to Know

    @Mom

    Mom – maybe I’ll join you for some scotch if my forecast is wrong, or even better if I’m right!

  14. Emma

    It must have cleared out quickly. I was on the Parkway heading home a little before 1 pm, and police were directing traffic. I only got held up about 5 minutes waiting to get by the stadium.

  15. Need to Know

    From the WP in 2008:

    “The fairgrounds can hold up to 50,000 people. It it was densely packed and seemed to spill over beyond the grounds; the campaign estimated a total crowd of 80,000. Prince William County Police Chief Charlie Deane didn’t issue an official crowd estimate but did say it was “one of the largest gatherings [the county] has seen.”

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2008/11/obama_wraps_up_campaign_in_vir.html

    Nissan Pavilion, as Jiffy Lube Live was called in 2008, can accomodate 25,000 ticket holders but far more than that attended the Obama rally in 2008.

    What attendance today? 7,000, 14,000? I’m feeling better about a Romney win!

    1. There were ticket holders and the numbers were controlled. Tickets had to be picked up at 3 locations. I wouldn’t rest on a false sense of security.

      Tell me why you want Romney to win? Are you another one of those anyone but Obama types?

      You know that thing that birds do to try to frighten their enemies? You know, puff up the feathers on their chests to give the appearance they are larger than they really are?

    2. Do you know the price tag that came with that large event? Didn’t think so. Thank goodness it wasn’t a huge affair. And it might be before all is said and done.

  16. Cato the Elder

    @Need to Know

    I think it will be tighter than that. More like Romney 50% Obama 48%.

    On another note I did sit in on a con call recently with the Boston High Command, and what is being developed and deployed for GOTV/Poll monitoring is nothing short of incredible, a veritable quantum leap past what OFA did last cycle. All I can say is that technology is going to be leveraged in a very outside the box kind of way in what should dramatically increase R turnout 🙂

  17. Mom

    ” All I can say is that technology is going to be leveraged in a very outside the box kind of way in what should dramatically increase R turnout”

    Did Cheney have electronic implants planted in all those breast implants purchased for those blond GOP trophy wives that will force the bobbleheads to vote when they would otherwise be taste-testing the vodka with their gal pals or pool boys? That should be worth about 12 percentage points alone. (@Elena, I did say blond so don’t get your knickers all in a twist)

  18. Cato the Elder

    @Mom

    You’re not that far off…

  19. Mom

    Ooh, covert cellphone apps that emit subliminal blipverts every time an eligible voter passes by a Starbucks.

  20. Need to Know

    @Moon-howler

    “Tell me why you want Romney to win?”

    1. More jobs – President Obama has had three and a half years but chose to use his political capital during his first two years when Democrats controlled the House and the Senate to ram through a massive expansion of government, rather than pursue policies to get America working again. Reagan and Clinton both grew jobs their first term. Because of the Carter recession, the unemployment rate reached 10.8% early in Reagan’s first term, but it was down to 7.2% by the election in November 1984. In January 2009, Obama started with an unemployment rate of 7.8% and it remained at 8.1% last month. It would be much higher if we didn’t now have a historically low labor force participation rate.

    We have over a million fewer jobs now (August 2012 latest figure) than we had in December 2008, George Bush’s last full month in office.

    http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/PAYEMS.txt

    I want a president who brings down the unemployment rate by promoting policies that create jobs rather than driving people out of the labor force.

    2. Economic growth – the economy is languishing under Obama. This is the weakest economic recovery (if you even want to call it that) since the Great Depression.

    3. Low taxes – you don’t stimulate growth by raising taxes. Democrats, such as John F. Kennedy, used to understand that.

    4. Reduced Federal spending and debt – Obama started with a national debt of $11.1 trillion in January 2009. He has grown the debt to $16 trillion; the fastest growth of debt any president in history.

    Finally, more jobs.

    1. You think Mitt is going to do this for you? Does he know yet? Is he going to like sent this all overseas?

      I don’t think you have any real indication that Romney can pull this off.

      I guess you weren’t impressed with the 90s or were you just too Republican to notice?

      I expect Dec 2008 had jobs. the crash hadn’t finished shaking down.

      What policies has Obama put in place that drive people out of the work force? saving GM? Stimulus package? That stimulus package even made it on the top of the Skyline Drive.

  21. Need to Know

    The official number is in. The Obama campaign says 12,000 attended today.

    Smart move on their part recognizing that his support now doesn’t come close to what it was was in 2008, and not having their event at Jiffy Lube Live or the PWC Fairgrounds. There would have been a lot of empty seats at either of those venues.

    http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2012/sep/21/20/crowd-turns-out-president-obamas-campaign-rally-wo-ar-2223619/

    1. Bird feathers again.

      The Democrats knew exactly how many people were going to be there because they controlled the tickets. Yet…you continue to want to swipe and sneer that they are down numbers. Hello!!! Middle of the day on a Friday.

      You know, when Romney came to town I never once sniggered about how many people were there nor did I draw conclusions. I figured it was probably neat for the Republicans to see their candidate.

      About the only negative remarks I made were about candidates (yes, both parties) paying back localities and how expensive it was)

      You all seem to have this behavior in common.

  22. Mom

    Bah, it was 2,000 people and 10,000 life-size cardboard cutouts of Elena.

    1. Actually they were all cardboard Elenas and she caused quite a stir. :mrgreen:

  23. Lyssa

    @Need to Know

    Remember, the Obama rally was at night when everyone was home from work . The 08 McCain rally was on a Saturday. I bet Pres Obama comes bac to PWC before the election and at night.

  24. Second Alamo

    The whole gang is coming to the fairgrounds on November 3rd, so we’ll see what the turn out is then.

    1. Who told you that, SA?

      Which gang? Maybe Obama and Romney should just save time and team up.

      Imagine all the bird feather chests!

  25. Lyssa

    4.1% of the US population is on welfare. Who the heck are the other 42.9%?

  26. Elena

    eff you mom 😉 !!!!!!!!

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