Get your empirical crowd-enthusiasm comparison on Route 66

ALBUQUERQUE -- Those seeking to use the typically inexact science of crowd size to quantify differing levels of political enthusiasm might have finally found a useful case study tonight.

"I understand Senator McCain was at the State Fair and he had maybe 1,000 people," Governor Bill Richardson swaggered before Barack Obama arrived at the University of New Mexico tonight. "I think we have more people here, right?"

One week ago, the gap between Barack Obama's rally crowd of 100,000 in St. Louis and John McCain's of 3,000 in suburban St. Charles two days later didn't offer such a perfect comparison. Obama's event took on a sunny Saturday afternoon on the banks of the Mississippi River, while McCain held forth on a weekday morning away far from downtown: in a planned new-urbanist development far less welcoming to the public than Obama’s chosen symbol of Manifest Destiny.

It would have been hard for a social scientist to design a better experiment in crowd size than the one that emerged organically today in Albuquerque. McCain hosted a late-morning rally at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. Under twelve hours later, Obama visited a college sports field less than three miles down Route 66.

The consensus among media covering the McCain event was that his crowd numbered approximately 1,000. A crowd count released during Obama's rally by the University of New Mexico fire marshal tallied 35,000 who entered the gates at the event’s perimeter, and the campaign estimated that another 10,000 to 15,000 stood outside it. (McCain's campaign does not release crowd estimates.)

A larger-than-life politician on home turf does not rely on empiricism alone, however. "I heard that we have possibly 300,000 people here. There will be official estimates, but that's my official estimate," Richardson said. "This is the biggest and most enthusiastic and best-looking crowd in America."