Romney’s Red Rocks Extravaganza

Earlier this week the Romney/Ryan campaign had what seems to have been a magical event at Red Rocks Park, outside of Denver. There was an overflow crowd of some 10,000, with over 1,000 people turned away for lack of space in the venue.

A confident Mitt Romney, two weeks out from Election Day, spoke about his campaign as a movement sweeping the nation during a moonlit rally at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Tuesday night. … Roughly 10,000 people packed into the concert venue west of Denver, with thousands more turned away at the door. Traffic leading into Red Rocks gridlocked in the hours before the event. The lines to go through security and enter the venue wound through the parking lots. …

Supporters in the audience clacked together Thundersticks, creating a sound akin to a stampede. Musicians Kid Rock and Rodney Atkins warmed up the crowd. Colorado Rockies legend Todd Helton showed up to give his endorsement. And New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a rising star in the Republican Party, also was on the bill, telling the crowd: “There’s a guy backstage who has the answers to the problems we face.”

When that guy walked out on stage — and the crowd roared a deafening roar — he appeared in awe of the scene before him.

“What a place this is,” he proclaimed. He then paused, and the cheers of the crowd cascaded forward.

The photos from the event show something remarkable…

And the video was no less impressive…

We found some full audio of the speech. You can definitely hear those thundersticks; they make for some pretty incredible atmosphere with the acoustics of a place like Red Rocks.

Not to mention a pretty cool story which came out of the event, courtesy of the White House Insider

As the governor was en route to the amphitheatre they were told the crowd was showing “strong numbers”.  What greeted him was a lot more than just “strong numbers” though.  It was a massive wave of thousands and thousands of supporters.  Before going on the governor apparently peeked out a few times and was shaking his head in disbelief at just how many people were there to see him.  He was told by organizers up to a thousand more were turned away because there simply wasn’t any room left.  People said you could feel the size of the crowd under your feet backstage.  Somebody had passed out a ton of “thundersticks” and the people were banging them together and making this amazing rumbling noise.  There were some real veteran campaigners backstage and I’m told they were all blown away by this crowd in Colorado.  It really was like some big time rock show.  Just a huge response for the governor.

So Governor Romney goes onstage and gives his speech.  The crowd just totally embraces him.  From beginning to end.  Every word.  They are fired up. Loud.  Positive.  Cheering.  Just an amazing moment for the campaign.  Everybody backstage were all smiles and peeking out at all those people and shaking their heads.  This is the kind of moment in a campaign you never forget.  Ever.   Nobody who hasn’t experienced it can really understand this feeling.  You’re looking at a candidate being transformed right in front of your eyes into the next Leader of the Free World.  They go from being human into something just a bit more. It’s all those people.  That energy.  It kind of fills the candidate up and makes them bigger than life.  And you are watching it happen in real time.  Right then.

The governor returns backstage and he is smiling and shaking hands, taking congratulations from everybody around him.  He’s saying how great it was.  Somebody yells out he’s going to win Colorado and the governor laughs and says he thinks so too.  And then something very interesting happens.  He moves away from the group of people just a bit.  Maybe ten or fifteen feet or so.  Just enough to have a little space to himself.  And enough people notice that the area gets a lot more quiet, and they are trying to watch the governor without looking like they are watching the governor.  They can all kind of tell something is happening right then.  It was described as something very peaceful and powerful that came over that backstage area for a moment.  And the governor, he lowers his head and his eyes shut tight and you could see him take a slow deep breath and then he lets it out and says quietly, but just loud enough for some to hear, “Lord, if this is your will, please help to make me worthy.  Please give me the strength Lord.”  And then his eyes open up, and he’s back to smiling and laughing and shaking hands and being the candidate once again.

It all adds up to something not all that dissimilar to the atmosphere the Obama campaign generated four years ago, though with a bit different demographic than the Hope And Change roadshow played to.

Speaking of the Hope And Change demographic – we just had to throw this in, as it’s a perfect illustration of the mindset of that crowd. It’s not enough to oppose Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, they have to be denied the right to speak as well…

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