Proof the Right Used Pre-Rally Picture To Claim Obama Arena Was Empty

Last updated on May 7th, 2012 at 02:32 pm

The right has tried to claim that the arena was empty for Obama’s Ohio rally, but an analysis of the photo reveals that the picture was taken before the president went on stage.

Here is the picture of the “empty” arena:

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Here a picture of Obama taking the stage at 1:20 PM ET:

Here is a view of the upper bowl that the right didn’t want you to see:

(That arena looks so empty with all of those people in it).

By comparing the first two photographs, we can see two things that prove that picture of Obama “failure” was taken before the event began. Notice that the crawler between the lower and upper bowls is blank in the first photograph, but once event began, the crawler/scoreboard featured a blue Obama/Biden logo. Secondly, check out the lighting in the first photograph.

If you look closely, you can see the shadows cast by the people standing on floor. The lighting likely wasn’t at full power, in other words the stage lighting is not on. As anyone who has ever been to a concert knows, the stage lights aren’t turned on until an act takes the stage. The house lights, which are the lights beneath the retired jersey banners, are used pre-event, post-event, and during intermissions. The photo was likely taken before the event because the people in the first photo are looking towards the stage. There also people in the stands, and there aren’t any visible people moving or heading for the exits. It looks like the crowd is waiting for the event to start, which suggests that President Obama wasn’t even on stage at the time the photograph was taken. Drudge and Breitbart’s evidence is a photograph that was taken when Obama wasn’t speaking.

The so called empty arena wasn’t empty at all. Over 14,000 people showed up in Columbus to kick off Obama’s reelection campaign.

Here are more pictures of the empty arena.

The crowd behind Obama:

More people who according to the right, aren’t there from Sarah Jones’s great slideshow:

Another look at the 14,000 + empty seats who disguised themselves as people:

More people in the upper deck:

To put a bow on it, here’s video of the crowd from YouTube via DebbieDoesDaleks

The truth is that President Obama drew 14,000+ in an 18,000 seat arena. It wasn’t a sellout, but it was about 13,500 more people than Romney’s largest crowd in Ohio. As the Washington Post pointed out Romney has drawn crowds of several thousand during the campaign, what they didn’t mention is that most of his thousands were bused in Mormon college students, but Obama’s crowd today was exponentially bigger than anything Mitt Romney has drawn this year.

The right wing media was trying to level the playing field. They want to erase the memory of Mitt Romney giving his big economic address to 80,000 empty seats at Ford Field in Detroit. The problem they have is that even though right wing media does, the photographs don’t lie.

The arena for the Obama event wasn’t empty. This was just another attempt by the right to plant a lie in the media, with the hope that it takes root and sprouts, but visual evidence and common sense are the pesticides needed to make sure that this weed never grows in our 2012 garden.



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