Still... 30,000 people waiting in the cold to see Romney, and another 10k who can't get in....
It was a great event . . . All the more impressive with it happening with only two days notice! There were many that stayed outside the perimeter along Stony Hill Road but I don't think it was 10,000. I heard that 34,000 tickets were issued and over 30,000 were scanned upon entry.
I was amazed at the number of energized young people in the crowd (in their 20's); truly heartening.
And now there are reports that security wouldn't let the freezing women/children out. Romney was late, and some wanted to leave.
They wouldn't let them leave til all the photo ops were done. Looks like everyone showed up to see what a loser looks like.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JFKucinich/statuses/265244319668133888?
I think you better reload Jackie Kucinich's twitter (yeah, Dennis Kucinich's daughter). . . She has walked back her incendiary statements and has corrected people who have repeated her original histrionics. That particular convo is especially funny as the hair-on-fire lefties are accusing her of being bought out by Romney for changing her story. Christ on a Rainbow Pony it's funny when they cannibalize their own!
From reading her latest (posted 1:55AM EST November 5. 2012) article in USAToday you would have no idea that she started such a crapstorm:
"The event began more than an hour late after a travel delay in Cleveland, causing those at the rally to have to wait several hours to see Romney after the sun had gone down. This led to a commotion near the press area when a small group of people tried to leave the rally though a secure perimeter established by the Secret Service. Some of the attendees complained that they were cold and felt trapped; with the aid of Romney advance staff and the Secret Service, they were redirected to usable exits."
USAToday
USAToday
Here's what happened (from someone who was there)
The issue was one of the geography of the venue. Behind the press boxes and grandstands were the farm's outbuildings, paddocks, barns etc . . . These people were trying to "exit" by barging through the temporary fence into that area that was not an exit.
The people in the grandstands were the earliest arrivals and they were there since 2 o'clock . . . By 6:35 when Romney's bus finally pulled in it was a bit nippy and a decent breeze was blowing (strong enough to keep the huge flags waving, see the pics above.
People were not dressed for the evening weather and I saw plenty of kids (too many under 10 y.o. IMNSHO) and adults complaining about being cold.
With the crowd being so large (we were 150 yards from the stage and there were 100yards of packed people behind us) and with traffic being as atrocious as it was getting in, we (me, my 24yo son and his 22yo girlfriend) left midway through Mitts stump.
We had zero problem leaving AS WE EXITED THROUGH THE EXIT!
Photo looking back from the road. The crowd reaches all the way to the edge of the picture on the left side:

BTW, when I started the truck at 7:25, the temp read 42 degrees. We were getting onto I-95 as the fireworks were going off.
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