Bill Clinton Draws Itty Bitty Crowd

Yesterday Bill Clinton came to my neck of the woods, Las Cruces, NM (pop. 100,000). There was a rally in a middle school gym where 500 people showed up. Shocking! Even if one isn't supporting Hillary, one would think a former president would draw more people. In fact, that very president drew 35,000 in Las Cruces (he said it was his largest rally during that election) on Nov 1, 1996. People came from all over the southern part of the state, as well as many from the El Paso area. So, when I saw the 500 number, it was shocking.

Fifteen miles SE of here is a little town (village?) called Vado. It's been 15 miles down the road for the whole 40+ years I've lived here, and I know nothing about the town, other than it has a truck stop. On May 21, Bernie Sanders had a rally at an elementary school in Vado. Now, don't get mixed up with the zeros here. There were 5,000 people who attended Bernie's rally.

Compare and contrast.
Former president: 500 people show up to see him.
Sitting senator: 5,000 people show up to see him.

I don't know if this is a sign of anything. All I could find regarding polling in NM was a recent online straw poll showing Bernie winning by a lot (lots of salt may be required). Election Day is this Tuesday, although early and absentee balloting have been going on for almost a month. Our election will get little notice, as California and New Jersey will get most of the attention. But hold good thoughts that Bernie will get more of the 43 delegates than his opponent. You know, the one with the former president husband who could only draw 500 people to a rally!!

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Raggedy Ann's picture

thanks for those numbers. I was wondering how many he would pull. No one ever reports HRC's real rally numbers. This is insightful, indeed. Have a beautiful day!

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

flitedocnm's picture

It's not likely to be much different now. Here's a photo of Bernie's rally there:

iu-47_0.jpeg

up
0 users have voted.
Hillbilly Dem's picture

but with or without Bernie (I vote "with", of course) it is happening out there in America. The pic of thousands at a rally at a town that small is more proof positive. My only hope is that when it hits critical mass, the reaction is not violent.

up
0 users have voted.

"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

Hillbilly Dem's picture

Double post. Same as above. I'm having trouble with the site today.

up
0 users have voted.

"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

hecate's picture

they get old.

Like, Grand Funk Railroad, for instance. They used to play stadiums. Now, they play casinos.

Likewise, everyone is so over, The Clenis. It's time he went into a Home. No longer The Captain. Is he.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fryGyqTJPU]

up
0 users have voted.
riverlover's picture

I won't link, no good setting off earworms.

up
0 users have voted.

Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

NonnyO's picture

Paul Revere and the Raiders weren't bad, as '60s bands go, even if no one could hold a candle to The Beatles after 1964.

up
0 users have voted.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

hecate's picture

reasonably argue, that the band should not have been confined, in some sort of stockade, for perpetrating this horror:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6RjP7MlXk]

up
0 users have voted.

up
0 users have voted.

'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "

Hillbilly Dem's picture

and raise you a Jim Morrison Indian Summer:

[video:https://youtu.be/ly6C8hIEz-s]

up
0 users have voted.

"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

Was even listening to Soul Kitchen earlier today.

Thank you, Hillbilly Dem.

up
0 users have voted.

'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "

Along with Kicks, Stepping Stone, and Good Thing. I loved those guys.

up
0 users have voted.
Haikukitty's picture

Not sure that means anything, but I think they agree with you, hecate.

up
0 users have voted.
NonnyO's picture

It can also be considered a protest song (as so many pieces were from that era). There's a Wiki page on it:

Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)

up
0 users have voted.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

I have all their albums through the date when Fang and Smitty left. "Steppin Out," "Kicks," "Oop Oop a Doo," etc. What a lift those old songs are!

up
0 users have voted.

Twain Disciple

What a hilarious non-sequitur.

Though it just occurred to me - they were actually the forerunners of the Tea Party!

up
0 users have voted.

In appearance, maybe, but never in spirit.

up
0 users have voted.

Twain Disciple

or that they stop putting out new stuff? Or that the stuff they're putting out now is crap?

Age is only a relatively minor part of it. I'd take Dick Dale over Kanye West any day.

up
0 users have voted.

They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore

Wink's picture

That I'm SURE L'il Nap will delete if he sees it on here...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/14/436461/-

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

PastorAgnostic's picture

Hill is over the hill, and nothing he does can help her.

500 people, a former president, his spouse is the anointed one, and they think no one will notice?

The only reason that this is not bigger news is because even the MSM realize that trump is insane. Pointing out the obvious about Billary and Hill is simply not kosher. Maybe.

up
0 users have voted.

appears to be one of sneering contempt and rage. Truly, he looks dissipated. No one, except maybe his wife, has contributed more to the decline of Democracy than these two: it is truly macabre that the two of them attend a memorial day celebration: they have caused more needless death, and wasted more American lives, and more lives in nations in the Middle East and South America than anyone.

Her "moment" of leadership passed: if she had dissented and reviled the IRAQ war vote, she would be sweeping into this election: instead she is a cynical shape-shifter whose only ambition appears to be narcissistic gratification. They are barely bothering to campaign. If its true that Bill recruited Trump, then the plan was always to give her a "no policy; Trump's bad; glaring statement of the obvious ad hominem campaign worthy of nothing."

The DNC is a husk of any real principles. The main stream corporate owned media has been sanitizing genocide for many years, and under either of these "regimes" it wouldn't be surprising if this became codified into law. They do a very good job of psy-ops abroad to rid territory and resources of human beings while they liquidate assets: and that is now going on here.

She and Trump are the same party, with the same objective: and their solution to Climate Change is population reduction.

up
0 users have voted.
PastorAgnostic's picture

It is a pity you need to shower after reading it.

up
0 users have voted.

Jimmy Carter would draw way more than 500. Hell, I'd bet dubya would draw more than 500 also.

up
0 users have voted.
Hillbilly Dem's picture

when one considers that had Hillary gone to Vado, there would have been 50 in the crowd..

up
0 users have voted.

"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

Mark from Queens's picture

Reading this gleefully I immediately thought of the one and only time I can remember this election season in which video was available to hint at the crowd size of one of their rallies/speeches.

It was in Philly when Billy Boy was confronted by #BLM protesters and lost it by parroting RW talking points and berating them. Here's the view there:

Seems to me not more than 500 either, maybe less even, in Philadelphia! There's an even better video shot by one of the protesters that dramatizes it a bit better even. But of course, as someone was making the case for in another blog's comments here, it seems hard to find now with the apparent fudging of search results at the heart of the Google Goliath (though I admit to only using DuckDuckGo now).

But the biggest juxtaposition to me still remains the day Bernie showed up in the S. Bronx. I was there, and it was goose-bump popping amazing to see the stretch of humanity lining up 3 hours before, totaling something like 10 city blocks.

All told, between 25 and 35k showed up at a park in the S. Bronx, many of whom were young black and brown folks.

On that same day maybe 25 miles north in affluent Westchester Hills was speaking, according to one report from the scene (hard to come by for some reason), "maybe" 500 people, 50 of whom were protesters who stood up, chanted "if she wins, we lose," and walked out. The only shots from there, again, are the typical close-cropped designed to give the appearance of a big crowd, when in fact that didn't exist.

And this was the scene all over New York.

There's no way anyone will ever convince me otherwise of this:

1462830374487.jpg

up
0 users have voted.

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

doesn't look good for our side http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-12042-morning-word-poll-shows-...
A lot undecided though, so there's hope.

up
0 users have voted.

We can only hope that Bill Clinton showed up because his team saw some weakness.

up
0 users have voted.
TheJerry's picture

Having lived in Socorro for several years, NM could be a tough call. The social/moneyed elite of the state in Santa Fe, Taos and to some extent Albuquerque would likely swing more towards Hillary. However, there is a huge artist community in that region that might swing it the other way as they tend to be far more progressive.

The rural areas of the state should play to Bernie's strength in rural areas. And this is a large part of the state. In particular, the rural white vote tends to lean conservative and would vote for Bernie over Hillary in an open primary, which NM is not. (in fact it was in NM where I started registering as a Republican so I could vote against people I did not like to get safest/weakest person for Democrat to defeat, with the theory that any democrat would be tolerable)

Bernie has been strong on native america rights and policies, I think that vote should swing towards him, if they turn out to vote.

As far as the Hispanic vote. That is interesting, in NM there are a lot of people of Hispanic origin that have been in the US for generations, since NM entered the Union. So you will have two groups, long time American families and more recent immigrants. There is, of course, overlap and inter-mingling of the groups (I think NM is one of the best melting pot states around) but as a whole they can't be classified the same way as say Hispanics in Illinois or Arizona, etc.

However, my gut is they would probably lean a bit more towards Bernie over HRC; but that is gut. You could very likely have a lot of women in this group that are long time HRC loyalists.

It is very frustrating how much time and money is spent polling the first few states and then they completely ignore most of the country.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________________________________________________________________
"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. "
-Niccolo Machiavelli

"Sorry Hillary"
-TheJerry

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Cj9kHa2WYAAfq_l.jpg

11 people at Rutgers. Two with Bernie signs.

up
0 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

up
0 users have voted.

I read that a Bernie supporter here in NM gave Bill a good talking to. Do you know is this actually happened?
I have sent in my absentee vote for Bernie. I have a Bernie flag in my front yard. I have not seen any for Clinton as of yet.
Go Bernie Go !

up
0 users have voted.

up
0 users have voted.

'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "