Mitt Romney Tries To Bribe College Students To Attend His Iowa Rally

The Romney campaign was so desperate to get students to attend an on campus rally at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa that they were giving away a foam Mitt or ball to the first 1,000 attendees.

Here is the press release announcing the event,

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will hold a rally in Orange City Friday, Sept. 7, beginning at noon (note time change from the Romney campaign) in Northwestern College’s Bultman Center gym.

Tickets are required and available free at the Northwestern College Rowenhorst Student Center front desk starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5.

Doors open for the Friday event at 10 a.m.; guests should enter through the Bultman Center’s main doors and allow enough time to pass through security before entering the arena. The first 1,000 attendees will receive a limited edition Mitt Romney foam mitt or baseball.

Mitt Romney is so desperate to make it appear that young voters support him that he is literally doing stadium style giveaways in order to get people to attend.

Judging by who the campaign picked to be in the crowd shot behind Romney, their giveaway didn’t work.

Ironically during his speech Romney accused Obama of offering college students, “lots of free stuff” in order to vote for him, when at the very same event he had to offer students free stuff just to try to get them to attend. By the way, the free stuff that Romney was complaining about includes things like Pell Grants, Work Study, and access to student loans.

To give you an idea of how well his college student bribe went over, here is Romney working the rope line after the event.

Unless those senior citizens are freshmen, I would say that this was the typical Romney crowd.

Mitt Romney is so unpopular that he has to try to bribe people to come see him speak. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin never had to give away free stuff to try to attract a crowd. Anyone who has ever been to a Ron Paul rally on a college campus can confirm that Dr. Paul doesn’t have to give things away to get people to come see him, but the Republican Party’s 2012 nominee can’t attract a crowd on his own merits.

There is something sad and pathetic about Mitt Romney having to sell his campaign events the same way that a minor league baseball team sells tickets.

Even though he is the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney remains bush league.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association