Do differences between campaign events have effects?

We rolled up to The Hotel at Kirkwood Center about 15 minutes after leaving Newt Gingrich behind in Walford, Iowa. Ron Paul was holding an event in Cedar Rapids and we wanted to be sure to hit it. What we noticed from experiencing both events was something unusual, they both had opposite environments about them that left an impact on me.

Gingrich’s tour bus pulled up to the Schrader Excavating & Grading site about 35 minutes late, and then it did not even make its way inside until another 10 minutes later. The event progressed on and on, finally ending with Gingrich taking questions. The place that the event took place was your typical excavating warehouse type place, being poorly lit, horrible for sound, and unheated. As well, after Gingrich got off his bus, he approached the microphone right away without an introduction, with his wife standing to his left and the bus behind his back. He then sat down at a table with his wife still dutifully to his left and Ellis the Elephant (a character from his wife’s book) in mascot form on his right. As well the majority of Gingrich’s audience seemed to be people either in their retirement age or nearing it.

Ron Paul’s event could not be more opposite. From outside appearance and no prior knowledge at all, The Hotel at Kirkwood Center comes off as a very upper end hotel aimed at people willing to spend a bit of money. The space that Ron Paul held his event was, in contrast to Gingrich, very open and bright. While Gingrich was going for the appeal towards the blue-collar worker, Ron Paul was going for a more upbeat atmosphere. Ron Paul also had an introduction from his speech, in the form of the Senator Rand Paul (his son). Rand Paul was also able to talk about things for his father that Ron Paul might not have been able to say about himself. The best example of this was Senator Paul addressing the vast amount of support that Representative Paul was getting from active duty troops. This allowed Ron Paul to show off the kind of support he was getting while not coming off as egotistical. The last major point of his event that struck me was how orderly it was, the event was to start at 2:30, and Representative Paul walked into the room at 2:33, and (while not rushing) he ended his speech appropriately and thanked everyone for coming out. As he left the stage he was instantly swarmed, but managed to keep moving through the room quickly while not hurried.

One of the most interesting differences though was the crowd. Ron Paul’s crowd was absolutely enthusiastic, giving him standing ovations whenever he would address one of his hot topics (like cutting the department of education or slashing the budget). We attributed this to the fact that the majority of his crowd was younger individuals, mostly looking 40 and younger.

What do you all think about the differences? Be sure to let us know!