Posted on 09/12/2009 2:21:15 PM PDT by Zakeet
Edited on 09/12/2009 4:03:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Huge crowd, yes. But not two million. Even DeMint has now changed his first boast on this. Malkin is wrong because the police do not give estimates.
We were there and have seen a lot of crowds on the mall for inaugurations, July 4th festivities, marches, etc. Two million would not fit on the Mall in its two mile stretch.
Best estimate from experience? - 200,000 plus. For those familiar with the Capital and the Mall, the crowd filled the Capital west lawn, the area around the Grant reflecting pool, and west to Fourth street. It started encroaching on another group’s permit west of the Grant statue. It could be another 100,000 to 200,000 because they were forced to spread out along the sides of the rally because of the permit limits and the loudspeakers’ range.
It was a very large crowd, far beyond expectations, but too many groups inflate the numbers (mostly libs). It was NOT “tens of thousands” as the CNN NBC crowd are trying to say, but more like hundreds of thousands. BTW, the DC or Park Police do NOT make estimates, so anyone saying so is wrong.
Not bad for a rally organized by amateurs with no coordinating megalith like unions or the NAACP. Just real people. Almost ALL of the thousands of signs were handmade, not the fancy pre-printed ones handed out by liberal groups like MoveOn and SEIU.
I posted this on earlier threads. Now reports coming out are backing up my estimate. 200,000 (up to 400,000 because many were off to the side in the nether reaches of the Capitol lawn) is a HUGE number - four full Yankee Stadiums. Let’s not get carried away with the 2 million claim and give the left an opportunity to refute everything else.
And it was true grass roots. Almost ALL the signs were handmade, not the product of SEIU and DNC printing presses that characterize liberal rallies.
Thanx for posting that — very nice. The “Boob Czar” near the end was too funny.
Having lived in DC for twenty years I can tell you that was a big crowd. It had to be more than 150,000.
From the YouTube time lapse video, it is definitely in the hundreds of thousands. And to think, for every one person there there are 10 that could not make it for money or work reasons.
“crowd est. comment for reference.”
??
I don’t have a comparison to the inaugaration, if someone has a photo showing the areas that were filled during that I could easily compare the areas I saw filled yesterday. I moved around the whole crowd in the vicinity of the Capitol during the event so I have an idea of the areas that were filled with people, though of course I didn’t have an aerial view I did view it from certain high points and statues.
I am certain there were at least 2-300,000 people there the lower estimates are impossible. I don’t know crowd numbers well enough to know if it could be a million.
I was there, and taking into account the valid overhead shots of the areas I could not see in total, there were between 200m and 300m there, IMHO.
Talladega is the largest track I have been to, and its capacity is about 175m (Darlington is about 60m, Charlotte about 140m) ...this crowd was larger but not by a lot. That is still a huge number...the Capitol police were clearly caught offguard.
Regardless, this many conservatives streaming in from all over the country has got to open the Congress’ eyes....even if the MSM ignores or denigrates it.
Is there a DC Park Police estimate posted yet? Would that be the most accurate count?
To FReepers in attendance yesterday (and some in Hartford): Sorry we never met up... I could barely keep track of my husband, never mind looking for anyone else. The few times I got on my cell phone, I couldn't hear the person on the other end.
Yesterday's March on Washington was simply amazing... I feel so fortunate to have been able to take part in it.
See Post #369
Oh, so now were supposed to accept the estimate of a friend of a poster.
Ok seriously, ABC’s official estimate of 60-70 thousand is definitely low. But 2 million is a pure fantasy. I’ve seen the video. I’ve seen the wide shot photos. 500,000 is on the high side. FreedomWorks estimate of 450,000 is probably a little on the high side, but it is at least believable. NBC estimated hundreds of thousands. Again, very believable based on the pics/vids.
2 million is ludicrous and you do a disservice to the movement by overstating it. Again, I wish 2 million was true, but it simply is not.
This is great! You should put it on zazzle.com and sell it. You provide the design, they provide the t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, etc. If it sells well (which I think it would!), you could make some dough.
Just spend it quickly before the government destroys its value!
From the article:
It started encroaching on another group’s permit west of the Grant statue.
Who was the other group and why do the pictures show that most of the forbidden turf was empty and the balance covered by tents??
Promisekeepers, I think.
Not Newt Gingrich. He has never “played along to get along”.
If you look closer at the picture, you’ll see a stage in front of the West Lawn grassy area. 912ers were positioned in front of that.
That seems to be the consensus of many attendees with your experience.
This argument over the actual attendance stat is going to go on for some time, but everyone who followed the event, and everyone who was there, understand that the real story is that this movement is building. The more the left attempts to ignore and minimize it, the bigger it will get.
Poll after poll after poll shows that a clear majority of American citizens do not like the way that congress and the "President" are handling the country, and that they want them to slow down and exercise some fiscal restraint.
The fact that Congress and Obama have shown no indication of backing off their radical leftist agenda is frightening, and even infuriating millions of people. This is only making matters worse for the government, and for us.
The Democrats in power are not only guaranteeing themselves a resounding defeat in the upcoming mid-term elections with this behavior, but are openly risking, and even instigating something much worse.
I wish I could have been in Washington, but I and about 10,000 other Texas patriots didn’t let a steady rain stop us from attending the Cow Town (Fort Worth) tea party featuring Judge Andrew Napolitano.
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