Unbelievable. Truly. I grew up not far from where this photo was taken, and can’t say I ever saw this many people piled into the downtown St. Louis area. Bob Dole’s visit during 1996 for his failed presidential bid drew both supporters AND protesters, and still numbered less than half of what the Wall Street Journal writes is an estimated 100,000 people. Given the city has less than 400,000 residents, and the metro area less than 3mil, and that St. Louis carries a lot of weight in Missouri’s electoral votes, let’s hope this is a sign that things really can, and will, change. To put it in another perspective, I seriously doubt that if McCain and Palin both were to campaign in St. Louis they could draw anything like this at an outdoor rally. Heck they might even draw more criticism from non-pro-America Americans than they would supporters. Wankers.
(My only criticism is the WSJ article is incorrect in labeling Missouri a “typically red state”. Missouri voted blue 14 times versus voting red 12 times in the previous centry; it voted blue as recently as ’92 and ’96 – and for the last 10 general elections has voted with the eventual winner, one of the few states to consistently maintain such credentials.)
This is pretty sweet, even if I wasn’t there. In 2004, I saw John Kerry speak in the basement of the Missouri Historical Society to 500 or so people. I was totally unenthusiastic about John Kerry, but I got out of work early so I just went over to check it out. Anyway, four years later and Obama draws in ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND fucking people? That’s crazy. I’ve never see the Arch grounds that crowded, even during the VP Fairs of my childhood. It’s gotta be one of the biggest events ever held there, and yeah, it’s a pretty impressive showing.
One thing to note Nick is that a lot of these people probably came from the Metro East, and Illinois is obviously completely in the Obama column. Really though, it’s irrelevant, because even if half of them are from the East side (a wildly generous estimate), that’s still FIFTY THOUSANDS PEOPLE.
Also, if you read the comments on that WSJ article, the writer not only claimed that St. Louis was the capital of Missouri (I guess based on the Old Courthouse in the photo), but also that 100,000 stood on the banks of the Missouri river. Both have been corrected, but that’s some quality fact-checking.
WAIT! St. Louis isn’t the capital of Missouri?
yeah, i realize now there are some flaws in the article. I can’t remember if it was CNN or Google News but it was one of those two that had that article linked to their frontpage! hah. either way, Yes We Can.