McCain’s Small Florida Crowd: Harbinger Or Not?

This is not the kind of story the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain wants to be circulating on the final full day of campaigning — a story that details him drawing a shockingly small crowd:

Barack Obama may lead John McCain by just 2 points in the latest CNN Florida poll of polls, but the enthusiasm gap appears a bit wider.

John McCain’s first rally of the day, in Tampa outside Raymond James Stadium, only drew about 1,100 people. Local reporters noting that at almost the same spot just before the 2004 election, President Bush drew about 15,000 people. Two weeks ago, Obama drew an estimated 8,000.

Republican Gov. Crist, who had previously agreed to do interviews with CNN and various local affiliates, bolted right after the rally with no explanation.

There are two ways of looking at this story.

ONE is that it’s an example of the news media generalizing something that could have an innocent explanation — suggesting that because this crowd was paltry, it means voters aren’t excited about the McCain-Palin ticket. Reporters are human and they can generalize and “typecast.”

THE OTHER is that it is indicative of a problem McCain faces in the enthusiasm gap, which would explain why his campaign in recent seems to have been trying to make voters afraid of Obama versus touting his own affirmative policy plans and his own attributes.

The second seems most logical for several reasons: 1) the crowd comparisons with Obama’s and Bush and — most damning — 2) the image of Florida’s governor scurrying away from the rally DESPITE having agreed to do interviews….LITERALLY putting as much distance between himself and McCain as possible.

Cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung, Austria