Sen. Obama draws 75,000 in Portland, OR. Yes, that's 75,000!

Late this afternoon I was watching CNN's "Ballot Bowl" as they covered Sen. Obama's appearance in Portland, OR. Imagine my surpise when I hear them report the crowd size at 50,000. Later this evening I happened to check the New York Times and discover the crowd was really 75,000 people. As long as I've been following poltics never have I heard of a politican drawing this large of a crowd. The other striking thing about this is the fact this is Portland, OR. The African American population in Portland sits at 6.6%. So much for the white working middle class problem the MSM keeps saying Sen. Obama has. I'm sure the photos on the New York Times site does not do the event justice.

To give perspective to the event the Obama campaign gave a comparison with Philadelphia:

It is “fair to say this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd” of his campaign, he told the crowd.Previously, the campaign’s biggest crowd was when the candidate spoke
to 35,000 on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. (h/t to AmericaBlog)

While I was already at the New York Times web site I headed over and read today's Frank Rich column where both Bush and McCain got such a thrashing I'm not even sure how they would respond to Rich:

"Hard as it is for Mr. McCain to run from the Bush policies he supports, it will be far harder to escape from Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney themselves. When Mr. McCain accepted Mr. Bush’s endorsement at the White House in March, he referred three times to the president’s “busy schedule,” as if wishing aloud that the lame-duck incumbent would have no time to appear at, say, get-out-the-vote rallies. Alas, Mr. Bush and company are not going gently into retirement.

Just look at Mr. Rove. Some Democrats are outraged that he is now employed as a pundit by Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal as well as Fox News. Instead of complaining, they should be thrilled that Mr. Rove keeps inviting Republican complacency by constantly locating silver linings in the party’s bad news. His ubiquitous TV presence as a thinly veiled McCain surrogate has the added virtue of wrapping the Republican ticket in a daily and suffocating Bush bearhug, since Mr. Rove is far more synonymous with his former boss than Mr. Obama is with his former pastor."

The entire article is a must read. Mr. Rich completely guts McCains campaign and it's raison d'etra. It will be curious to watch how McCain does the two step away from Bush. At this point I'm not sure how he does this without looking foolish.