Mile Line for Mile High

We're running into people who have waited in line in the hot, tree-less sun for well over an hour to see a speech by a politician, and then given up to order up a Moons Over My Hammy here at the nearby Denny's (where the parking lot costs $40 today). As Weird Al memorably sang, I haven't been in a crowd like this since I went to see The Who.

The line's moving–there were plenty of people in the stadium when we drove over a nearby bridge at 2 p.m.–but it's well over a mile long at this point. To see a politician speak!

Here's a fun forgotten fact: Back in 2000, Ralph Nader was selling out arenas from coast to coast. And he didn't have no Springsteen or even Bon Jovi: It was all Patti Smith, Michelle Shocked, Tom Tomorrow, maybe Eddie Vedder if he was lucky. But back then there was a two-term president that had made the activist base extremely restless on any number of fronts, from (misplaced) hostility to trade to (righteous) worries about Bill Clinton's bad record on the Fourth Amendment.

Anyways, those days are long gone, and Nader is universally reviled/ignored, but he continues to poll surprisingly well, one of the little-observed weirdnesses in this campaign.