I just got back from the Trump parade and I have to say it was legitimately the worst executed mass attendance event I’ve ever seen

One overarching thought: how do you spend $80 million and fumble the basics?

Many more thoughts -

🧵 🧵 🧵 First - I’m not just saying this as a hater (although I am a hater) - I’ve also planned an event on the Mall that was larger than this (and it was fourteen days notice and a tiny fraction of the budget, but who’s counting)

Lord help me because I'm gonna do a thread on the Dean Phillips launch in Concord, NH today - because it's already a little bit of a mess - in multiple domains.

Let's get into them: First, their social launch has been janky, to say the least, which I briefly covered earlier. Their main twitter account remains suspended at this time.

https://twitter.com/dougblandry/status/1717901583256523141

🚨 GOP LAUNCH REVIEW🚨

First images of Ron DeSantis' first event as a candidate are out!

My knee-jerk reaction is: mediocre at very best.

Will link my earlier threads about this weird venue choice below

Follow this thread for ~MORE INSIGHT + WISDOM~

🧵🧵🧵#DeSantisAdvance first, if you're wondering

"hey, is that a relatively small, low-ceilinged church sanctuary that Ron DeSantis' team picked for his huge launch event, against both the law and basic common sense?"

yes, yes it is. Read more about that in this thread...

https://twitter.com/dougblandry/status/1663311448356036609

Welcome to the first real Ron DeSantis campaign day, where they've chosen a small church venue in W. Des Moines for a "kickoff" event - that ostensibly will send him straight to the WH.

I've QT'd yesterday's thread on this choice also but I have some NEW THOUGHTS TO SHARE

🧵🧵

https://twitter.com/dougblandry/status/1663311448356036609

DeSantis has already had to quietly switch venues for this first in-person event - which is a mess because it's a HUGE moment in the history of any campaign.

The "first event" on camera is so important for setting the tone.

Here's Biden's in 2016 in PGH on his way out to IA

Early indications are that the DeSantis advance team is already facing challenges for their first in-person 'kickoff' event in Des Moines tomorrow

They already quietly moved venues from a huge "RecPlex" (from their original release) to a megachurch (website now)

🧵🧵🧵!

[1/?] Now, listen, it could mean that the crowd got too big!

But I don't think so.

As far as megachurches go, the Eternity Church is more like a mediumchurch amirite?

These are the only photos I could find, but you get the idea. Not so big.

[2/?]

The advance work for Ron DeSantis' first-ever campaign-ish appearance in IOWA is surprisingly coming out between medicore and hot garbage

a few THOUGHTS on this mess because I enjoy this stuff entirely more than I should and this is cheaper than therapy

🧵🧵 (1 of 800 etc etc) First things first, the positive:

This is a healthy crowd, especially for a Friday morning.

It's not "thousands" like this guy says but it's definitely 800 to 1k or so.

https://twitter.com/LeoFeldmanNEWS/status/1634208259157680128

The advance work and optics on Joe Biden's Warsaw speech are just flat out amazing

Simply cannot do it better

And the President's speech matched the staging in strength & tenor

10/10 no notes etc

...ok well some notes BUT THEY'RE ALL GOOD NOTES:

🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵 What do you do if you found THE MOST AMAZING site, but the tight shot would be an ugly black glass arch?

Do not despair - just print a banner of what you WISH it was.

In this case, a quaint wooden door wrapped by a huge gradient arch of UKR colors to perfectly fill the hole

Good morning and Happy Washington's Birthday

Oh and Joe Biden went to Kyiv

This is amazing - some notes on the most significant trip of his Presidency thus far: Starting with, how is "secret trip to Ukraine" compatible with already custom plaques embedded in the masonry? Would love to know how this worked.

(also where does the QR link to?)

https://twitter.com/igornovikov/status/1627626912989192193?s=46&t=NuEAzr_ntrj574HDcyMlEw

Good morning and welcome to the first GOP presidential launch event of the cycle (not counting that...situation...at Mar-a-Lago)

I'm gonna keep all my *expert* & valuable commentary to this 🧵 so that I keep the follower loss to mere dozens

#NikkiHaley #NikkiHaley2024 Loading your crowd riser 45 mins before the speech is set to begin is a bad idea - sure, more time to pick out the very specifically diverse crowd (as they've done here) but way more time for those folks to get tired/lock their knees - they'll be worn out by stage time

Ten weeks ago I wrote this long thread about the drive-in convention event

Last night's victory speech with @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris was in the same spot - and I think it was simply the best live event in Dem politics in years - and 2nd place isn't close.

Here's why:

🧵🧵🧵

https://twitter.com/dougblandry/status/1297260786512003073

It was fun to watch this one come together mostly as an observer (I was mostly dealing with all those 🚗🚗🚗 & 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 - in the crowd)

But part of the reason this was amazing is that the major players for this one were the same as convention - so they knew they needed to one-up:

Two weeks ago the grand master of DNC Convention remote sites @djsigworth called me when Wilmington, DE suddenly became a *really big* remote site and asked if I could employ some of my (otherwise unmarketable) skills in big ass flag hanging.

And we ended up like this. 1/ And I'm so happy everything worked out because Joe Biden has consistently put the safety of his staff, the public and himself first when it comes to CV19, so a lot of normal big campaign moments have been muted.

But Joe Biden earned THIS moment. He *deserves* this moment. 2/