I've noticed something about candidate events in PA

[spinbaby]

Pittsburgh area. Obama events are ticketed and they're out of tickets within an hour after they start to release them. Clinton events are promoted on TV as "Open to the public, no ticket required."

[rodeodance]

1. open to the public i think is good policy

[AllentownJake]

10. Sorry your wrong

Our events are open to the public, you just have to come to our office and get a ticket first.

I'm not going to go into why this is such a better idea because I'd rather you'd be ignorant to the fact that forcing people to show up at the campaign office is better than having people just show up at a facility.

[grantcart]

12. actually the main reason they are doing it is because they want to get away

from the 20-30k people showing up and have smaller groups so that it looks more intimate on the news.

[AllentownJake]

14. Nope

Its all about gathering information about who attends and leveraging it.

[uponit7771]

18. Obamas campaign has been light years in tactics than McSame or Hillary

[Adelante]

19. It's both

That policy you mention has been one very, very successful policy for the Obama campaign. Recently, the campaign decided on smaller venues so that he could interact with the audience more.

[Dinger]

32. Me Too

It might explain why Chelsea has been asked some rude questions (Monica). I saw something about it on CNN.COM this morning. Sorry, I lost the link. It seems to be gone now. I still think it is a good policy. Having to go to campaign headquarters and get tickets might keep numbers down, but it has kind of a "screening" quality which I don't care for. Having a more open event does open it up to certain situations though.

Edited to add the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/09/chelsea.monica.ap/

[MADem]

2. Older voters aren't fans of stadium events. They don't need to go out and hear/touch/participate

like the younger voters do.

Those seats are uncomfortable, and there are too many stairs. Too much standing in line.

If you know who you are voting for anyway, there's not as much of a pressing "NEEEEED" to chant, cheer and touch the hem of the garment for the Clinton supporters.

The Obama champions like that whole rock concert/massive movement type stuff. It reinforces and validates their selection.

[JimGinPA]

3. They Have To Bus In Union Workers At The Last Minute To Fill Her Events

[flor de jasmim]

4. Is this true? I hadn't heard it.

[Eric J in MN]

11. Union workers don't own cars? NT

NT

[Kokonoe]

5. I've noticed that democrats stand in line till 3 AM to vote

And republicans win under questionable vote counts.

The democratic nominee always has huge crowds.

[Zachstar]

6. It is good to see many people going to these things.

Obama seems to have a small chance of winning PA.

Yet even more important is this level of support is showing everyone that McCain is not going to be able to slime his way to the white house. People are going to be INTO this election rather than putting it on the sidelines.

[noel711]

7. What this means is scary....

When Obama's appearance in Allentown was announced,
people lined up to get tickets at 6 a.m.

When I got myself out of work to get to the campaign office,
I was told "no tickets."

"Oh," says I, "I'll just show up.. they'll let me in.."

Ah, no, according to the campaign office,
there are strict, urgent, critical security concerns.

No one gets near him without accountability,
no one gets in without a ticket,
and then even getting into the venue,
the security detail is worse than an airport.

I think this is worse than that 'stalker' that approached
him in Philly. I wonder if there was a death threat.

[Zachstar]

8. It is more like fire and building codes.

Buildings and areas can only be filled to an extent before they become unsafe.

[juajen]

13. Sounds just like Bush. An excuse for making sure only supporters

get to see the rock star. It's hard for me to believe that his life would be in more danger than the Clinton's.

I guess if he got the nomination, there would be even more security, and more , and more, until he becomes no more available to Americans than our current excuse for a President.

[gcomeau]

20. Oh please, try watching one of his town hall meetings

It's fairly clear from the question periods that they're not screening or pre-selecting participants. I'm sure they planned to have some lady get up and yell at him that abortion needs to be stopped for his last question of the meeting in Johnstown for example. These are no Bush-like rigged audiences.

[cliffordu]

22. Wow, what a wonderful insight!

Your veracity and acumen are astonishing!!

The way you snuck the comparison to Bush in there, like WOW, you really get it, don't you?


:sarcasm:

[AllentownJake]

27. The tickets

have nothing to do with security. You go through the same process going into an event that you would if there were no tickets.

To get a ticket, you simply need to give the campaign your address, phone number, and email address....don't know why we would ask for that.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. When Obama was in my town recently

There were no tickets of any kind. It was line up and take your chances on geting in, and there were lots of people who did not get in. Hillary here last weekend, same thing, no tickets, line up for ages in bad weather, smaller place and less people, but there were some turned away.
I wish they had tickets, I don't mind standing for a while if I know I'm getting in, but to stand for hours with no ticket is too much to ask. Both events were poorly run, and run in the same way.

[rox63]

9. They need to limit numbers because of local fire codes

I've been turned away from campaign events because the local fire marshall said they had reached their legal capacity.

[Buzz Clik]

15. Bill Clinton came to our little redneck town a week or so ago. You had to get tickets.

He had a choice of all sorts of venues from a basketball arena that seats 14,000+ to huge auditoriums (where I saw Maya Angelou), etc. He chose the gymnasium of the smallest high school in the entire area. The high school has about 400 students, and the gym wouldn't hold all of them.

Obama is coming this week. He's giving out tickets and holding his rally in the biggest high gym in the surrounding area -- he'll have well over 3,000 available seats.

This is counter to the OP. :shrug:

[spinbaby]

16. Hillary was in Hopewell today

And on TV this morning, they kept annoucing that the event was open to the public and no tickets were required. Perhaps it was a larger venue.

[PA Democrat]

23. Hopewell High School is a relatively small high school, about 1,000

student enrollment. I'm not sure how many people the gym can seat. I am assuming the event is indoors.

[spinbaby]

24. The photo suggests that it was indeed indoors

Small venue and it was open to the public without tickets. That rather suggest they're having trouble drawing a crowd. I was tempted to go see her myself this morning.

[AllentownJake]

28. Her supporters look sad

[spinbaby]

29. They're at a funeral

Unlike so many Obama supporters on this board, I'm not mad at Hillary. I just kind of feel sorry for her.

[newmajority]

17. Yep. Still have my ticket from the Clinton/Gore bus tour of 1996.

Didn't do any thing more than stand on the street in Centralia WA and get a bad sunburn, but you had to have a ticket to get there. It makes perfect sense for security reasons. Granted, this was over 5 years before post 9-11 paranoia began, but issuing a limited number of tickets to such an event would certainly help the Secret Service and local police coordinate such an event. As well as fire codes (as others have mentioned) in the case of an indoor event.

[bunnies]

21. Tickets are smart for Obama events.

I know people who waited outside for hours only to be turned away. At least if you have a ticket, you know you get in.

[Bluenorthwest]

30. I prefer tickets

But in my city, there were no tickets for Obama's speech recently. In fact, they announced that people should sign up at the website to RSVP, which I did at once, only to get an email back saying the RSVP was not a ticket, not tickets were to be issued. The RSVP technique was of course just a way to capture e-mail addresses. I've had at least a dozen requests for money after that. I did not get in to the event.
On the other hand, Clinton's event here was run the same way, smaller crowd but over capacity of the hall. No tickets. Long waits.

[bunnies]

31. I fell for that too.

I rsvp'd to an Obama event thinking that meant I would get in. We got there... only to find that an rsvp didn't mean shit. We didnt even get an email. (in NH)

We were thankful that we were of the last people to get into the event. But I was still pissed. If we'd known we didnt have a place reserved, we'd have gotten there earlier.

We also waited three hours at a Clinton event earlier that day... only to be turned away at the door.

Tickets are SO much better.

[book_worm]

25. Whatever the reason Obama sure pulls in the crowds.