McCain can’t draw 10,000 for VP announcement, much less 80,000 for a convention speech

I heard my good buddy Keith Olbermann on MSNBC say that the McCain camp was having trouble filling up the 10,000 person stadium in Dayton, Ohio for Friday and that they were shipping in people from other states to do so. I checked it out, and he wasn’t making it up! I had my doubts.

From the Dayton Daily News:

Tickets are still available for Sen. John McCain’s Friday, Aug. 29, rally at Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Fairborn.

…

Tickets are being given away at county GOP offices in southwest Ohio and in Indiana and Kentucky.

All the while the GOP and McCainiacs are trying to bash Obama for his 80,000 person crowd and his columns. They are clearly just jealous that they cannot excite even 10,000 people to come out for a Veep announcement, much less attract 80,000 people for a speech. This whole celebrity attack, effective as it might be in some areas, is really just compensation for McCain’s own inability to strike a chord of social change and true political motivation.

Those 80,000 people in Mile High stadium aren’t there just for celebrity, they are being mobilized. The Obama camp is not making the mistakes that Dean and Kerry made in 2004. They are exciting and energizing at big rallies, sure, but they are also mobilizing an intense ground campaign. Trust me, they are making sure every person in that stadium is registered to vote and offering free tickets if a person commits to 6 hours of volunteer work. Colorado is a close state right now, with both candidates within a percentage point. The Obama camp is using this strategy to push it over the edge.

So, John, good luck in Dayton. Obama will be making history tonight, and you’ll be a footnote on history. McCain/Pawlenty? Whoohoo.

P.S. Here’s Obama in the same Nutter Center doing a run of the mill speech. Looks full to me.

-Mike