There has been much ado lately about how many 4th of July parades Charlie Brown appeared in, and whether McClintock's appearance in the City of Lincoln parade was hastily scheduled, and who got a better reception.

The Brown campaign started it all off with a press release on July 3 releasing their holiday weekend schedule and asking, Where's Tom?

GOP blogger Aaron Park responded with a post here and on the Placer CRA blog saying Tom was greeted like a rock star in Lincoln and that Brown got tepid applause.

Brown capped his 4th of July travels with a photo blog release picked up by the liberal blog Calitics.

I would like to offer my own observations, not all positive for Tom McClintock.

I should note that I rode in the Lincoln 4th of July parade in the second to last entry, a caravan of golf carts driven by me and neighbors.  Our golf carts were decked out in great red white & blue and our kids marched in front, handing out candy and having a blast.

Therefore, at the end of the parade, I could not see the relative reception the two candidates received.  I will take Aaron at his word that McClintock got louder applause.

But that being said, it was clear that the Brown team is, as of this weekend, out hustling the McClintock crowd.

They claim to have had 100 volunteers working the parade route for Brown, and while I don't know if that number is accurate, it was quite apparent they worked the route harder.  There were dozens if not hundreds of people in the audience wearing Charlie Brown for Congress stickers, by the time the end of the parade (me) made its way through downtown Lincoln.  It was very noticeable.

This is not necessarily indicative of Brown having more support with the crowd, just a better organized campaign right now.  That is to say, if McClintock had people working the crowd as well, they might have gotten hundreds to wear their stickers also, but they either didn't think of it, don't have volunteers, or don't have stickers.

This campaign has hardly begun, and McClintock has come off of a grueling primary battle.  There is no reason to believe, yet, that the fundamental advantage he has of being a popular, well known Republican in a Republican district has changed.  But Brown is motivated, his troops are energized, and they are running a good campaign. 

McClintock can coast for a bit longer, but pretty soon, it will be time for him and his team to get it in gear.

Or else...