There was no place to park within an hour before the event. The high school band was playing football game type songs, intermixed with America the Beautiful.
The room seated about 2500. The crowd was white (but so was the Hillary event, this being New Hampshire.)
The event had some 2500 people jammed into a high school gym. It was raucous and hot and airless in the over-capacity space. Trump said the things in the same way he does in his multiple Town Hall events. I had a chance to talk to two TV reporters at the end of the event, making the point that the important thing that happened at the event was the non-answer to the Obama-Muslim question. Neither reporter seemed to think that was an interesting observation, although by the time I got back to the motel at 9:30 p.m. the cable news networks had picked up that as the main story.
The only insight I would add is that there is a good reason why Trump may not perceived the question as one he needed to address McCain-style. It is that the raucous crowd did not give any hints of being surprised or offended by the question. No one shouted “idiot” or “sit down” and no one booed or hissed. The general crowd noise, audible in the tape, stayed the same as before and after. Donald Trump is very attuned to the crowd, engaging it constantly.
The proverbial cue of what did not happen, the dog in the night that did not bark, is not that Trump failed to do a McCain. It was that the crowd he is speaking to, both in that stuffy hot gymnasium and in the wider public among Trump supporters, was that they were not particularly disturbed by the question. The crowd was the silent dog. The crowd was not surprised to hear someone say in a disgusted tone that Obama is a Muslim and is not actually an American.
Video on crowd response to Obama is a Muslim question: Click on the video link to get a brief look at the crowd after the question from the man saying Obama is a Muslim and not an American. I missed getting video of the question and the first part of Trump's answer but my video does show the crowd, which thought the question unexceptional.
The room seated about 2500. The crowd was white (but so was the Hillary event, this being New Hampshire.)
The event had some 2500 people jammed into a high school gym. It was raucous and hot and airless in the over-capacity space. Trump said the things in the same way he does in his multiple Town Hall events. I had a chance to talk to two TV reporters at the end of the event, making the point that the important thing that happened at the event was the non-answer to the Obama-Muslim question. Neither reporter seemed to think that was an interesting observation, although by the time I got back to the motel at 9:30 p.m. the cable news networks had picked up that as the main story.
The only insight I would add is that there is a good reason why Trump may not perceived the question as one he needed to address McCain-style. It is that the raucous crowd did not give any hints of being surprised or offended by the question. No one shouted “idiot” or “sit down” and no one booed or hissed. The general crowd noise, audible in the tape, stayed the same as before and after. Donald Trump is very attuned to the crowd, engaging it constantly.
The proverbial cue of what did not happen, the dog in the night that did not bark, is not that Trump failed to do a McCain. It was that the crowd he is speaking to, both in that stuffy hot gymnasium and in the wider public among Trump supporters, was that they were not particularly disturbed by the question. The crowd was the silent dog. The crowd was not surprised to hear someone say in a disgusted tone that Obama is a Muslim and is not actually an American.
Video on crowd response to Obama is a Muslim question: Click on the video link to get a brief look at the crowd after the question from the man saying Obama is a Muslim and not an American. I missed getting video of the question and the first part of Trump's answer but my video does show the crowd, which thought the question unexceptional.
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