100,000 people have attended Bernie Sanders events this month. That doesn’t mean much.

[Dawgs]

Let's say the Republican field more closely mirrored the Democrats. Imagine there were two Republicans running for president, Jeb Bush and Not Jeb Bush, where Not Jeb Bush did a better job appealing to the outer boundary of the party. Do you think that Not Jeb Bush couldn't roll up 20,000 people at a campaign stop in, say, Houston?

This is the point at which the question invariably turns to the contrast between Clinton and Sanders. Clinton isn't drawing these crowds, the argument goes. Sanders is capturing the energy. Both of which are true points. Sanders, as the underdog and the newcomer, has an energy that Clinton doesn't. She is not drawing the same crowds.

Part of this, though, is a conscious decision. Sanders, coming from the back of the pack, has to show that he's a legit candidate. He needs to be chuffed up. He needs to look big. Clinton has been trying to do the opposite. Her campaign launch was a Sunday e-mail followed by a road trip to Iowa. She's doing her best not to look like a behemoth. Her unofficial launch, on Roosevelt Island, was a neatly tailored group of a few thousand, packed into a space meant to display an audience that size for the cameras.

Could Clinton fill an arena in Los Angeles if she wanted to? Of course she could. Unquestionably. If you think Hillary Clinton can't do basic body mobilization when she needs to, you haven't been paying attention to American politics for the past few decades. There are unions in Los Angeles that can fill a stadium on a week's notice. This is not as big a task as it looks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/12/100000-people-have-attended-bernie-sanders-events-this-month-that-means-very-little/?tid=sm_fb

Difference is that Bernie doesn't need to mobilize people. They show up because they're motivated to change 'politics as usual'. They're tired of the status quo.

BTW, this is NOT THE **HRC GROUP**

[Vinca]

1. I figure for every person who shows up for a Bernie rally,

there must be 10 acquaintances for each who also support Bernie.

[dsc]

7. and that is likely not true

Most people don't go to those events alone but with people they know and who would then share many of the same acquaintances. Thus it is unlikely that a crowd of 10,000 would be producing 100,000 different acquaintances.

[Vinca]

10. There is no way to prove either of us is right.

What I can say, is all of the people I know - with one exception - are Bernie supporters and I don't think a one of them has been to a Bernie event yet. People commune with like-minded people.

[HereSince1628]

13. Yes. People hang with people similar to themselves.

Or, they hangout by themselves.

[magicmama]

2. Thank you.

Clinton spent all summer on a 'listening tour', meeting with the 1%, collecting their dough in a private setting, barely venturing outside to be 'seen' to the public. What's worse, is that she have one token interview all summer, and it wasn't even a very good one. Clinton just doesn't have the enthusiasm to motivate the 99% to come out in droves. One perfect example is that kickoff rally in Roosevelt Island.. I saw that 5,500 showed up, but no-one was jamming it up in the overflow area - as a matter of fact, it was empty.

Since then? She hasn't mustered much of any enthusiasm and has really not really motivated anyone to vote for her, and her unfavorable remain higher than her favorable. Not one frontrunner has ever won a GE with this kind of numbers. I'll vote for her, but I don't hold any hope for the Party to win with Clinton at the helm.

[Zorra]

3. Talk is cheap, and political claiming is even more worthless. Prove it. nt

[AgingAmerican]

4. There is no excitement around Hillary

No spontaneity in her supporters. It's hard to get excited for the status quo.

[artislife]

5. All I know is

That six months ago, I saw a lot of Ready for Hillary in my fb feed and now....crickets.
I see a lot of Bernie quotes, though.

My roommate/landlord is not political.

She is on board, and I found that out when I said I was going to Bernie's event. I thought she wasn't even interested but she is. She likes his plain speaking.

This doesn't prove anything, but people who I didn't think would be for him, are. It is my little world.

[ibegurpard]

6. expect more and more of this

As Bernie keeps surpassing each milestone he "can't" reach.

[n8dogg83]

8. Another MSM media attempt to dismiss Bernie.....

And provide cover for the lack of enthusiasm for Hillary among her supporters. We can expect a lot of this going forward.

[frylock]

9. bwahahahahaha!!!

Clinton barely drew 5500 to her vaunted "announcement" in the largest city in the nation. She isn't even going to try to hold an event on the scale that Sanders has, because the optics of a couple thousand people showing up is not going to look good at all.

[aethia]

12. Watch out

In a race there is only so far you can let the other horses get ahead of you before you are playing catch up. The Clinton campaign under estimated a young black man's chances in 2008.

[Motown_Johnny]

14. then why did only ~5500 turn out in NYC for her?

That was her big announcement too.

You would think the numbers should have been better for her than that.