Oprah Winfrey’s tour with Barack Obama is selling out quickly. The free tickets for the Columbia, South Carolina rally, originally scheduled for the 18,000-seat University of South Carolina basketball venue, but tickets were gone within two days for the December 9th event. Now it’s being moved to Williams-Brice Stadium, where USC plays football.
This stadium holds over 80,000 for football, but for a political rally they can pack ’em in on the field, too, so the capacity should be over 90,000. Tickets will no longer be required. It’s a gutsy call for the Obama campaign, since even if 35,000 people show up, the site will appear sparsely populated for the television shots.
If anyone can do it, though, it’s Oprah. Her popularity cannot be overstated. Obama is likely to draw the largest political audience in this state ever, ensuring a couple days’ worth of positive news coverage as the primary approaches. The weather is expected to be sunny and 70°, a beautiful day for an outdoor event, so it will be a positive factor. If they manage to come close to filling the place, it will probably headline the national news.
Hillary Clinton still leads in national polls and in South Carolina, but Obama is certainly gaining momentum at just the right time.
