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 ...
I hope it snows about three feet on top of that “man made global warming” crowd. Now that would be worth watching on my new 46” Sony XBR6.
I think it would be absolutely hilarious if 6 to 10 million show up. I am sure that Washington DC will find a way to blame the logisitical nightmare on Republicans. In fact, maybe they could build a platform on top of the Washington Monument and allow Obama to speak from there.
Who needs enough hotel rooms when you could turn the mall into a gigantic tent city?
They could invite Robert Mugabe to give the benediction and tell us how he rid his nation of Cholera.
“I hope it snows about three feet on top of that “man made global warming” crowd. Now that would be worth watching on my new 46” Sony XBR6.”
I got one of those too. Did you get the blu ray rig too? VERY nice...do you think they will show Obomber in black and white or in color??? You know, riding the train, the whole Abe Lincoln thing - maybe it’ll be a b&w show...
To: Las Vegas Ron
“That quote was exactly what I had in mind when I posted.
I’m blanking though, was that FDR or Teddy?”
Sorry, I cut off the lead in:
Hyphenated American is phrase coined or popularized by Theodore Roosevelt in a 1915 speech to the Knights of Columbus. Roosevelt said:
22 posted on Monday, December 22, 2008 6:25:48 AM by jessduntno (Barack - Kenyan for “High Wind, Big Thunder, No Rain”)
“Zero might be get a bigger crowd if he served Coke””
He claims he stopped using that stuff...oh, gosh, I probably shouldn’t be accusing an American President of being a coke head, should I????
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