Vampire Weekend show for Sanders draws young fans, but not all feel the Bern

[TexasTowelie]

By Mesan Valley


CEDAR RAPIDS — It's just before 3 p.m. on the Saturday before the Iowa Caucus, and a dozen people are in line to see Sen. Bernie Sanders and Grammy-winning indie band Vampire Weekend in a last-hurrah rally.

The doors don't open for another two hours, and it's in the 30s. And the line is growing longer.

Only four of the first people lined up are Iowans eligible to caucus on Monday, and only two of them are committed to Sanders. The rest of the line lives out of state.

It seems Vampire Weekend is the big draw.

“I keep forgetting Bernie is going to be here,” said Kamryn Ryan, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, and part of a trio at the very front of the line. “I want to support Ezra (Koenig, lead singer of Vampire Weekend) supporting Bernie.”

Read more: https://qctimes.com/news/local/vampire-weekend-show-for-sanders-draws-young-fans-but-not/article_8b693c39-1d55-568d-a5d6-35b1798cffa7.html
(Quad City Times)

[RandySF]

1. VW drew 3,000 for Bernie last night

and Pete had a crowd of 2,300 today without any musical guests.

[mr_lebowski]

2. So, half of the eligible voters at the concert are supporters of Sanders?

Given there's what, 10 candidates? I'm thinking I like how that works out for me numbers-wise if I'm Sanders.

Y'all know what they say about Statistics, right?

[TexasTowelie]

3. It's not a concert, it's supposed to be a Bernie rally.

If I was on the Sanders team, I would be wondering whether the level of support is genuine with so many people who can't vote in the Iowa caucus attending the rally. If anything, the article is discomforting.

[mr_lebowski]

6. No matter what it's officially called, there's going to be a lot of attendees who go ...

"Freaking Vampire Weekend is playing locally, here in Iowa? Sweet, I'm there!"

They don't give a crap that it's supposedly a BS campaign event. Doesn't matter that's what Bernie's team wants to call it. It's a concert to a lot of other people.

[Retrograde]

7. But the campaign can still take pictures of the crowd

for use in future ads: no one has to know that most of the people there were not going to vote for Sanders.

It reminds me of a Sanders rally in my town back in 2016: the rally was packed, but the town overwhelmingly voted for Clinton in the primary. It wasn't Sanders or his policies that were the draw - it was actually having a candidate show up in our town at something other than at gazillion dollar a plate fundraisers. That probably why his campaigns like to play small towns.

[TexasTowelie]

8. That's why crowd size doesn't matter.

I thought about going to a Bernie rally where I live out of curiosity, but I have no intention of voting for Bernie in the primary. I didn't attend because of transportation issues and I no longer attend events where I anticipate that I have to remain standing for a long period of time because of lower back pain.

[LanternWaste]

4. More accurately, half of eligible voters at a Sanders rally support Sanders

"I'm thinking I like how that works out for me numbers-wise if I'm anybody-but-Sanders..."

[mr_lebowski]

5. First off, the sample size is 4 ...

Secondly, it's not a normal campaign rally when you invite a popular band in the middle of a big tour after a well-received album has come out recently. I also doubt they played many venues/nights in Iowa on this tour. Most big bands don't.

You would EXPECT you're going to get a lot of people who don't care about the candidate and are only there because of the concert in this scenario.

Not a big Bernie guy at all, just talking numbers here.