Thanks for posting this. I used to live in DC and was at Reagan’s inauguration. That crowd was about a third of what I saw from cameras and still pics of 9/12.
Anyone know the crowd count for Reagan?
I agree there was way more than 60-70,000. Even about 500,000 seems a bit low for the size of the crowd, when you compare pictures of the inauguration and the pictures from 9/12. They look to be at least, close to the same amount of people.
Paging “75,000” Bill O’Reilly!!!
Also, for the inugeration, they closed the bridges to traffic, so people had to use metro.
All I know is that the Metro between Pentagon City and Federal Triangle was quite crowded on Sat. Morning, around 10 am. Both the Blue line and the Yellow line were carrying folks in, and it was standing room only in the cars on both lines from what I saw.
Someone needs to send this information to OREALLY? in order to show him what a putz he is. Will he admit he is wrong and report an accurate ball park figure of attendance? NO, because he is too vain to admit he was totally and repeatedly W R O N G.
Wow. Great approach to the equation. Somebody’s on the ball.
Maryland PING!
Metro 200,000+ added to 200,000+ bus drop offs and we had a MINIMUM of 400,000.
WE ROCK!!
Most excellent!
For a fair comparison, we looked at the Saturday after Labor Day in 2008, which is when September 12 fell in 2009. On September 12, 2009, 437,624 rode metro rail. By comparison, on the Saturday after Labor Day in 2008, 202,528 rode. The difference is 235,096. Even if nobody else came to the March, and we know they did by chartered bus and by carpool, the theory that only 70,000 people were there is off by roughly 335% - debunking the 70,000 claim...
Nam Vet
Interesting analysis, but flawed. Ridership on Saturdays (including the 5th and the 19th) has increased to around 300k, so the starting point of the should be approx. 100,000 not 200k as suggested. Also, “ridership” counts entrances and exit, so if someone went to and from the rally on the Metro, that counts twice.
Still, Metro ridership alone should argue for a number higher than the 60-70k reported. Very impressive since even the organizers expected 10,000.
The DC scum that would ride public transportation to obamas inaguration would far outnumber the few Republicans in the area that would.
Since most came from other states they probably wouldn’t use the government choo choo anyway.
The beauty of the 70,000 number is that next time, when the counts will be accurate at, say, 1,500,000 people, we can say 20 TIMES as many people showed up!
His “70,000” is especially interesting in light of correspondence that has been shared with me:
“...I spoke with Chief of Washington FD and EMS, Chief Kenneth Crosswhite, telephone number 202-673-3331, and he emphatically stated that: (a) they have not estimated or guestimated crowd numbers for the past 20 years; (b) that it is in complete against their policy; and (c) that he has promised to send an email confirming his and conversation with me...”
OReily and ABC News appear to have the same source - and I'd OReaaaally like to know WHO that is.