Sarah Palin draws crowd of 60,000

Yes, you read that correctly. When she spoke at Lady Lake, Florida at The Villages, she drew a crowd of 60,000 people!

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters that John McCain is “the only great man in this race” and promised Sunday he will fix the nation’s economy if voters give the GOP four more years in the White House.

“He won’t say this, so I’ll say it for him,” the Alaska governor said in an almost confidential tone at the close of her first Florida stump speech. “There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you. John McCain wore the uniform of his country for 22 years — talk about tough.”

The Villages, a vast, upscale planned community north of Orlando, has about 70,000 mostly adult residents — many of them military retirees — who vote reliably Republican in statewide races. Tens of thousands inched along roads into the picturesque town square of the complex, where they stood in sweltering heat for about four hours as local GOP officials and a country band revved up the crowd.

“Sa-Rah! Sa-Rah!” they chanted at every mention of her name, applauding loudly and waiving tiny American flags that were distributed — along with free water bottles — by local volunteers. The fire chief estimated the crowd at 60,000.

Wow. That’s astounding. If you go read the comments at the linked article, you’ll see reports from people who were there and they sound jazzed about the McCain/Palin ticket.

And take a look at the picture Hot Air has leading the post about this article:

A giant lipstick. I love it!

Update: Gateway Pundit notes, the difference between our candidates and theirs is that ours don’t have to lure you to the rally with the promise of beer and bands:

Unlike their competition, it doesn’t look like the McCain-Palin camp had to offer beer or Marxist rock bands to lure in the supporters.

Pereiraville and Bakerstreet have plenty of great pictures from the event.