I was in New York City’s Bryant Park in 2003, in awe as around 10,000 cheered Howard Dean. In that electrifying moment, everything seemed possible. The Dean campaign was an unassailable juggernaut!
We know how that story ended. The moral? Crowd sizes aren’t everything. Bernie Sanders supporters learned that lesson in 2016.
That’s all to say, Elizabeth Warren’s crowds aren’t an indication of inevitability. She’s not even the front-runner! But damn, not only does she draw numbers, but she takes selfies with all attendees. That is, hours and hours of selfies with thousands of supporters (over 50,000 at last count), and through it all, boundless energy (and a preternatural resistance to getting sick!).
Just watch that clip, and wonder how you would fare, standing four hours taking thousands of selfies, and then end it with that kind of energy! How about instead of a debate, Warren and Donald Trump face off on a selfie line?
This is a campaign that has gained slowly and steadily, absent any gimmicky viral or “big” moments, built one plan at a time, one selfie at a time.
And those selfies are important—each one gets circulated on social media, free advertising and the best kind of advertising, that coming from friends and family. Each person in those selfies now has a vested interest in seeing Warren become president. Who doesn’t want a picture on the wall or mantle with a PRESIDENT of the United States? And one as historic as Warren would be? Even better!
The plan is so genius that it’s baffling why no one else bothered to mimic it. Is it a question of stamina? Or is the rest of the field too time crunched to make space? Those big-dollar donors at the next fundraiser can’t be kept waiting!
At some point, the selfie line will have to end. The security concerns are massive, the risk to her health over a long campaign are real. And at what point is a crowd too big to indulge?
New York City, 20,000:
Los Angeles, 4,000:
Minnesota, 12,000:
Seattle, 15,000:
Oakland, 6,500:
And a bonus:
So … where are Joe Biden’s crowds?