Byron, yesterday in Grand Junction 22,000 people turned up to see Sarah Palin, which if memory serves is rather larger than the numbers Jack Kemp was drawing back in ‘96. If my experience in New Hampshire is anything to go by, the size of the crowd is inversely proportional to the number of journalists who show up. At Weirs Beach, in a pitiful attempt to avoid detection as another latte-sipping metrocon about to jump to Obama, I eschewed the reserved media pen and lined up for hours with my fellow Granite Staters for the privilege of getting into steerage. We were packed in. The media pen was empty, save for a handful of reporters, one of whom was a New Hampshire-born correspondent for The Providence Journal and two others of whom were from the excellent fellows at the ”Meet The New Press” radio show at WEMJ. (They came to the Long/Goldberg/Steyn NR pre-primary palooza in Manchester, too.) But otherwise Governor Palin could have hunted caribou on the vast empty yawning tundra of the press pen.

Afterwards (and notwithstanding another phony-baloney story about Secret Service agents preventing members of the public from asking her anything), the Governor plunged into the crowd and stayed for as long as she could, signing signs and at least one baby’s onesie, all the while answering questions from anyone who wanted to ask one. Had the Head of Obstetrics at The Atlantic Monthly turned up, he could have asked her a question for his ongoing fallopian investigation.

“Press availability” depends on the press being available, too. I wonder if Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker and other naysaying friends and colleagues would feel differently about Sarah Palin if they saw her on the stump. I don’t know whether 22,000-strong crowds in Colorado can change the game, but the idea that she’s the drag on the ticket doesn’t withstand scrutiny.

[UPDATE: An excitable reader runs the numbers:

22,000 is .01 percent of the number of voters in the 2004 election.
22,000 is 5..3 percent of Nader voters in 2004.
That is all.

Actually, it’s worse than that. 22,000 is 0.0000032 per cent of the population of the entire planet. Given the vast number of upcountry Papuan tribesmen who couldn’t be bothered making the trip to Grand Junction, obviously Governor Palin’s rally was a total flop. I stand corrected.

Still, who knew Ralph Nader had two decimal points in 2004? That’s way better than I thought he did.]