A crowd of 1,000 people showed up to not see Bernie in Portland.

[cali]

And that was just one city. In other cities across the country, people also showed up to support him.


A crowd of about 1,000 people turned out in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland Saturday to support Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Sanders was more than 1,700 miles away in Iowa, where he was scheduled to speak Saturday evening. But his absence didn't dampen the spirits of his supporters, who gathered under sporadic showers and cloudy skies for the rally, one of dozens taking place across the country to coincide with the Vermont senator's Iowa speech.

The event drew a diverse crowd with a creative bent. Middle-aged canvassers wandered about trying to secure the signatures of young voters for ballot initiatives. Fathers walked around with children strapped to their chests in Baby Bjorns.

More than a dozen speakers addressed the crowd – some focused on Sanders' policy stances to fight income inequality, environmental crises or social issues. A couple speakers had connections with the Vermonter that dated back decades.

<snip>
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2016/01/bernie_sanders_rally_in_downto.html

[Helen Borg]

1. Pffft, more proof Bernie cannot deal with one-on-one interactions!

[bvf]

2. Laugh now--it won't be long before someone adopts

that stance in an OP--it's getting that ridiculous.

[Kalidurga]

7. I've already seen it done.

[djean111]

4. And, I am sure, someone is trying to figure out the demographics of the crowd. n/t

[cascadiance]

11. Well, to have one on one interactions with Hillary, you needed a few thousand dollars...

... to get in to her fundraiser meetings here in Portland earlier, when Bernie was getting record crowds that even the Trailblazers couldn't have in terms of lines being turned away at the Rose Garden when 28k showed up there...

[Eric J in MN]

3. I'm glad the Sanders campaign is doing events with surrogates, too.

The Clinton campaign has had a lot more surrogate events so far, but hopefully the Sanders campaign will have a similar number to the Clinton campaign during the rest of the race.

[cali]

5. That actually wasn't what these events were about

[Eric J in MN]

8. What were the events about? NT

NT

[cali]

9. They were about getting people out to support Bernie

There weren't surrogates at all klocations

[Proserpina]

6. Because: It isn't about Bernie

Well, it's not just about Bernie....

Bernie is a personable, authentic person, comfortable in his person, in his work and in public.

But he also has an idea: an agenda that resonates with Americans of all types and situations.

And that's a one-two knockout punch: a viable plan and the obvious leader to bring it about.

I cannot think of a case since George Washington, except maybe Abraham Lincoln and FDR, where that combination naturally occurred.

Bernie is a LEADER. This country is screaming, begging, crying for leadership. We are tired of grifters, empty suits, the paranoid and the bought.


(I'll wager even the 1% admire him, though they will never admit it, nor that in the worst case scenario, when they are bankrupt, he might be their salvation...)

[jalan48]

10. And just think. They are doing it without the hope of personal gain. Go Bernie!