Despite Leftwing Put Downs, Palin Continues to Draw Huge Crowds

Arianna Huffington in her Sunday Roundup gleefully reports how Sarah Palin’s favorability rating is “nosediving” according to recent polls, and Huffington continues, ‘“as amused as they were by all the new stories and new characters, the American people knew that the ‘Welcome Sarah’ party was over.”

In the meantime, Politico reports today: Palin Draws the Biggest Crowds Yet for GOP. “Sarah Palin tonight attracted the largest crowd yet to any Republican campaign event this cycle, drawing tens of thousands of Floridians out in a conservative-leaning retirement community north of Orlando for a solo rally.

“Exactly how many voters Palin, making her first campaign trek to the Sunshine State, had in The Villages is uncertain.

‘“Mike Tucker, a local fire marshal, estimated 60,000. But reporters on the ground, including AP's Brendan Farrington and my colleague Ken Vogel, would only say ‘tens of thousands,’ suggesting the marshal's estimate was on the high side. The St. Pete Times's Adam Smith had another fire official in the crowd say it was about 25,000.

“Regardless, the size of the crowd underscores just how enthused conservatives are for Palin and the sort of buzz she's still able to drive nearing a month after her introduction as John McCain's running mate.

“Republicans can always draw good crowds out at the sprawling Villages -- exactly a year ago I saw Fred Thompson thronged like a matinee idol there -- but the Florida GOP is saying tonight that Palin's crowd broke state attendance records. At the very least, it outpaced the 15,000 President Bush drew to the retirement community four years ago.

“To reiterate: An Alaska governor who was virtually unknown a month ago and is the number two on the presidential ticket may have doubled or tripled the crowd for a sitting president.”