Posted on 01/22/2009 9:10:48 AM PST by RatherBiased.com
Experts are questioning the National Park Service report that 1.8 million people attended the inauguration of President Obama.
An estimate using satellite imagery produced Wednesday by intelligence publishing company Jane’s Information Group counted between 1.3 million and 1.7 million in and around the Mall and parade route.
Clark McPhail, an expert in crowd counting and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, said that 1.5 million people spread from the west lawn of the Capitol to the far end of the reflecting pool would have a consistent density equivalent to packing nearly 2,000 people on a basketball court.
Maggie Daniels, a George Mason University professor of tourism and events management who has conducted research on crowded Mall festivities, said the 1.8 million figure seems too big, but precise analyses remain to be completed.
“I tend to think it’s closer to about 1 million” on the Mall, she said.
Laurie Harmon, a George Mason professor who works with Daniels and who attended the swearing-in, said that where she stood, people were packed. But upon watching aerial footage later in the day, she noticed “several areas along the Mall with very low population.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dcexaminer.com ...
Our local NBC TV station reported 970,000.
Screams of racism in three....two.....one
1.7...1.8...does it really matter?
“1.7...1.8...does it really matter?”
Nope, long as I didn’t have to be there.
Some were probably patriots that had to be there. He won (I guess) by a lot more than that, which is more concerning .
As the poet-songwriter Joe South said,
“these are not my people no,
these are not my people,
and it looks like the end, my friend,
gotta’ get in the wind my friend
Won't make that mistake again.
Very concerning is the number of young CONSERVATIVES who voted for Obama. Not so much voting for him but against the GOP.
Two of my 20-somethings and friends’ young adult kids voted that way. That may be anecdotal, but these are kids raised in very conservative households who always held coservative views, and who still hold conservative views.
They just weren’t seeing action living up to philosophy from the GOP. They really aren’t pleased that thru a Republican president and Congress, the national debt grew so outrageously, and they know who’s going to have to pay it off.
When the GOP had the power, it didn’t fulfill its promise.
We can only hope that a few years in the wilderness will help the party refocus. Assuming the country survives.
They were not alone. I know a rabid hunter/retired big company executive Republican that did likewise. Said Bush “was the worst president ever spending like a ‘rat etc.” I asked him a couple questions on BO and he was clueless, e.g., name one accomplishment/policy position. Hopeychangey voter. That said, many GOPers just stayed home. For example, BO won Ohio by 200,000 (but only 40,000 more than Kerry in ‘04) while McVain got 300,000 less votes than W in ‘04. This puppy was winnable. *sigh*
The media would NEVER inflate the numbers, hoping that they are not caught, and be able to quote the false numbers in history books for the next thousand years.
< / sarcasm>
You mean the press would lie to us? Who knew?
That’s about what Chris Wallace said on FNC - that it was really about a million. But he also illustrated that it was only as much space per person as two pages of a traditionally sized newspaper.
That’s still a lot of people. Good for them.
No doubt there was a shtload of people there. Libs always pump up the numbers - recall the “million”-whatever marches of the last century. Way overblown, and only a “racist” woudl challenge those numbers.
I think the Yogi Berra rule applied here. “Nobody wanted to go there..it’s too crowded.”
I think a lot of people were scared away because they did think it was going to be so crowded.
Or, one ton of garbage per acre.
Does that count the thousands in the Purple Tunnel of Doom , who never got to the inauguration:)?
i just don’t see it. how can any legitimate conservative view-holder think that voting for a socialist over a RINO is the answer? is it just wanting to be “hip” and “with it” because the majority of their peers were voting for him? i have a 20 year old daughter and neither she nor any of her conservative friends could ever envision voting for obama.[the 17 and 14 year old couldn’t envision it either, but won’t have their suffrage til the next presidential election ; )]
Weren't these the same folks who botched the investigation of the murder of Vince Foster?
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