Posted on 12/22/2008 6:07:48 AM PST by jessduntno
By Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 22, 2008
Officials are casting doubt on an early projection that 4 million to 5 million people could jam downtown Washington on Inauguration Day, saying it is more likely that the crowd will be about half that size.
D.C. authorities said the earlier estimates, provided by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), were based on speculation surrounding the historic nature of the swearing-in of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American president. After weeks of checking with charter bus companies, airlines and other sources, they're reassessing.
"It's more of an art than a science," City Administrator Dan Tangherlini said. "The fact is, earlier it was speculation. Now we're beginning to flesh it out and what the physical capacities of the system are."
The Secret Service has dismissed the high-end estimates of 4 million to 5 million people. But there is universal agreement among security officials and planners that massive numbers of people will flock to the swearing-in of Obama (D), who had drawn huge campaign crowds.
Turnout could easily reach 2 million, officials said, far outstripping the 400,000 who attended the 2005 inauguration of President Bush. Although it is possible that 5 million people will descend on the area in the days leading up to the inauguration, it appears unlikely that trains and local roads could get them all to the Mall and parade route Jan. 20, officials said.
Jawauna Greene, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration, said that inaugural planning committees had initially considered up to 6 million attendees.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said the most recent estimates she has gotten from the Presidential Inaugural Committee and federal and local officials project between 1.5 million and 3 million people.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Free 40 oz bottles of Olde Enlish 800 to every adult atttendee!
Second term inaugurations are NEVER that big a deal.
Probably, what they meant to say is that after buyers remorse has set in, America is reassessing...
Either that, or the core constituencies can’t afford the Greyhound ticket.
isn’t it “hundreds of thousands?”
How about the “Soviet & Cuban Flag” count estimate?
Has it also been adjusted?
HoW would H & W have that much gumption to get out of bed, go to DC, and attend a scheduled event?
He will be transported in a sedan chair, the one can not be expected to soil his feet by walking like a commoner.
IMO, 50% of Obama supporters never heard of an inaugaration and don’t care. They just care about the checks Obama is going to send them.
Guen, I’ve marched in those DC Marches for Life twice, and attended Dobson’s Rally for Life in 1990 in DC. I well remember the battles to get a realistic total for the number of marchers—wih the Park Police lowballing to beat the band, and aerial shots showing like twice the number of their estimates.
It is gratifying to see the huge number of young people that brave the cold every January to march in DC on Jan. 22nd. The flame has not gone out among the young.
Mrs. exit82 was the executive director of a Christian pregnancy center for 12 years, and we also started a program for housing unwed expectant mothers in NJ. We have been in the abortion war for over 20 years. I suspect you have been involved in the fight too!
I’ve taken to adding 10 million to the 50 million number of abortions. This is due to the number of aborted girls that would have born in the years 1973-1991 that would have add one or more children by now. Plus the 50 million number is low—California does not report their numbers, and the totals are created by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood. Nothing like having the foxes counting how many chickens are missing from the henhouse.
The primary abortion holocaust is the number of Americans aborted. The secondary holocaust is the missing generation of children in families the primary victims would be creating now.
God judged Israel and Judah severely for much less. He has been extraordinarily merciful to our land.
Guen, always good to “hear” from you. A Merry Christmas to you and your family!
“It’s more of an art than a science,”
I think the more relvant question is... is it more a Sham or a Scam?
Great point about the total population of DC.
4 million would mean that the entire population of DC would be multiplied by a factor of 7 or 8.
I'll be down to Washington a few days later for the March for Life, the day after Obama signs the death warrants for thousands of unborn children.
Good comment, jessduntno.
My family became actively involved in 1988.....
God bless your wife for her many years in this.....12...that's a lot of caring & tears in a heartbreaking/rewarding ministry.
It was not in vain.....never in vain....regardless of what happens in the next year/years.
You did what we were called to....I know you made a difference in many lives.
Absolutely.
I postponed my trip by about ten days.
I am hoping that by the 24th most of the looters and destroyers will be either in jail or on their way home.
For perspective, normal DC is a dangerous place, specially at night; yes, even along the mall. But during the day the regular citizens seem as normal and friendly as in any other large city.
The taxi drivers are specially helpful and friendly. I hope to enjoy my stay there. But not between Jan 15 and Jan 25th...
Not a new concept. Teddy Roosevelt had some thought on the matter, almost 100 years ago...
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americans... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of it continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”
Theodore Roosevelt October 12, 1915
"A hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts 'Native' before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance." -- Theodore Roosevelt
Even an idiot with an room-temperature IQ should be able to figure out that it's not physically possible to house and transport two million people, never mind 6 million in the immediate DC area.
Can you say instant gridlock? Looters' and muggers' paradise?
The Metro and buses should certainly be fun for those 3 or 4 days. Never mind the airports.
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