About 1.1 million people registered to attend, forcing aides to begin making plans to stage an added outdoor event. Aides knew the 1.1 million figure was inflated: After sorting through the sign-ups — a process that included looking at registrants' voting histories — they determined that about 300,000 were fake.
To winnow down the likely audience further, advisers estimated that only between 200,000 and 300,000 people lived within immediate driving distance. Worst-case scenario, they concluded, was an audience of about 60,000.
Would have been good to be a fly on that wall.The president, who had been warned aboard Air Force One that the crowds at the arena were smaller than expected, was stunned, and he yelled at aides backstage while looking at the endless rows of empty blue seats in the upper bowl of the stadium, according to four people familiar with what took place.
He feeds on energy, both the energy of his supporters and of his detractors, and everyone's fatigued. It'd be interesting if he just fizzled out.
He feeds on energy, both the energy of his supporters and of his detractors, and everyone's fatigued. It'd be interesting if he just fizzled out.