Say Anything Blog

But rather at a huge, outdoor stadium that can hold 76,000 people.

This truly is the American Idol election. Yesterday afternoon the big news was the fact that Barack Obama has decided to change venues for his acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention. Apparently the Pepsi Center, which holds 19,000 people, was not big enough for this American Idol candidate. Now he will accept the nomination in the stadium that is home of the Denver Broncos, which holds 76,000 people. That is quadruple the amount of people originally planned.

But Obama isn’t the first candidate to make such a move ... John F. Kennedy apparently did something similar back in 1960. Oh and let’s not forget the fact that Obama will be making this acceptance speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech.

Truth is, if Obama didn’t know that he can parlay his rock star, American Idol status into a crowd of 76,000 he would stay indoors. Normally it would be tough for a politician to draw that many discerning, informed an intelligent voters to hear a speech ... but we really aren’t talking about discerning, informed and intelligent voters now are we? We’re talking about the victims of mass hysteria who faint not at what the object of their worship says, but at the very sight of him.

Seems that there have been other world leader wannabes who have held huge rallies in front of slavishly adoring followers in huge outdoor venues. Things, as I remember, didn’t work out all that well for some of them.

Pray for rain.

I actually think Obama is rolling the dice a bit with this.  It’s a good idea if he can pull it off, but what if he can’t fill the stadium?  It may shock some who only know about Obama through what they hear through the Obama-adoring media, but let’s remember that this guy barely won the Democrat nomination and that entire chunks of his party are considering not even voting for a President at all this election cycle.

I’d be willing to wager that the Democrats will have people out hustling to fill seats less the messiah be embarrassed by some empty sections in the upper decks.  And even if they manage to herd enough people into the stadium to fill it, I doubt everyone there will be an Obama supporter.

After all, car accidents and train wrecks draw crowds too.