BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Romney/Ryan in Manassas, Virginia.


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When we arrived at rally site (Harris Pavilion in Old Town) shortly after 2 pm, the entrance line started at the corner of Church and Battle streets, went south two blocks on Battle street, made a U-turn back up Battle street to Center street, turned right on Center street to South Main street, turned right on South Main to the railroad tracks, turned right and followed the railroad tracks back to Battle street, then right again on Battle street (for the third time), up Battle street to Church street (where we started), then left on Church to West street, and (finally) another left on West street to the entrance of Harris Pavilion.

The line length, measured from the map, is roughly 1 km long, and figuring a density of about 3 people per meter of length, equates to about 3,000 people. We didn't make it into Harris Pavilion, which was filled when we got to the final turn up Battle street. The line was still at least 2,000 people long when we left the line to go the overflow area next to the train station.

The mayor of Manassas estimated the crowd at 10,000; my guess that he underestimated a little. I spoke with a Romney campaign volunteer who told me they were expecting around 6 thousand and was clearly surprised by the turnout. The Romney volunteers deserve a whole lot of credit for keeping things moving when they were obviously nearly overwhelmed by the crowd. The crowd deserves equal or more credit for behaviour that was polite, cheerful, and -- clean. When we finally left, there was no trash anywhere to pick up.

Photos and comments to follow.