We were there My 14 yo daughter was home schooled and listened to Rush every day for ‘Current Events’ :)
She had been singing at patriotic gatherings since the Gulf War so she wanted to sing at this one so we went...She sang the National Anthem and God Bless America...If you were there and saw that little girl belting out patriotic songs to that big audience with all those TV cameras trained on her...Yes that was my daughter....
A local news item the next day started out with: "An estimated 35,000 people descended on this city of 87,000" ... and ended with "Despite the size of the crowd, there were no incidents and no arrests. 'This is the most well-behaved crowd I've ever seen,' said Bud Reed, a Fort Collins police officer."
The behavior of the crowd reminds me of the reaction of a local Lefty to the crowd. He was a co-worker of mine, and he posted an account on Usenet of his experiences that day, for the benefit of fellow lefties who were eager to hear horror stories of what it was like to be surrounded by hordes of raging rightwingnuts.
He was a volunteer for the Red Cross, who always set up a table soliciting donations at every single major outdoor event in the County. So he was there that day helping to man the table. His reaction was priceless ... he first said what it was he had expected to see, but then grudgingly admitted that it was not that way at all.
Of course, he didn't particularly like what the vendors at other tables were selling - eg "Spotted Owl Recipe Book," Tshirts making fun of Bill & Hillary, pro-2A paraphernalia, etc. But he said the people all seemed "normal" ... "many young couples with young kids" ... people of all ages ... "exceedingly polite ... every time someone would accidentally bump into someone else, both would say excuse me". He immediately followed that with "It was depressing".
Ha! Did you get that? First chance he ever had to view a huge swarm of conservatives, and he discovers much to his chagrin that they're all exceedingly polite, seemingly "normal" people ... HOW UTTERLY DEPRESSING! LOL.