The fire marshall is estimating the crowd at about 23,000. The WaPost simply says, "Thousands of people waited in ine this morning ..."
Virginia is a crucial state this year. It has traditionally been a conservative state, but demographic shifts have essentially turned the Commonwealth "purple." A few signs reading "Keep Virginia Red" were spotted. In addition, the quixotic campaign of Jim Gilmore (the Republican running for senate in Virginia) distributed fliers saying, "A vote for Mark Warner (his popular Democratic opponent) is a Vote for Barack Obama." The flier mentions that neither Obama nor Warner have military experience or national security experience, and also said that "John McCain & Sarah Palin Need Jim Gilmore!" ...
No doubt, the McCain campaign has seen crowds swell since picking Palin. Some women in the crowd were overheard saying they came specifically for Palin ...
At the end of the event, McCain drove by and waved from the Straight Talk Express, which everyone agreed was pretty cool ...