Metro Delivers Hundreds of Thousands to 9/12 Rally

The Foundry, Heritage Foundation ^ | September 15, 2009

[TBP]

Tell it to O’Reilly.

[TCH]

VOR Lady, you are “harmless”? OH, ABSOLUTELY! LOL! Yeah, once we got out on that metro platform... it was “keep moving,” or get squashed. The only litter I saw was a banana peel somebody dropped on the walkway near the General Grant statue... Some guy picked it up, having not a few words of disgust, and put in a trash can. I was amazed how clean the West lawn was once the crowds began to disperse. Did you see my pics? Here are the ones I shot at the rally: http://www.resistnet.com/profiles/profile/show?id=Bruce35&;

[Fu-fu2]

I don’t think it was discussed here, but the crowd on 9/12 was a moving crowd, unlike the inauguration. We entered the Capitol area from Pennsylvania Ave around 11:15 and it was full. We watched as people walked along 1st St and back down Maryland toward the National Mall, because there was nowhere to stand and you couldn’t hear the speakers that far back. When we started leaving around 3:15, there were still some people just arriving.

[noiseman]

No kidding; I'm really disgusted with O'Reilly continuing to promulgate the fiction that there were only 70,000. My wife and I were there. We stayed in Crystal City, south of the Pentagon, and caught the Metro at the Crystal City station. We saw the same situation there that others observed at their stations - thousands and thousands of protest attendees packing the stations and the trains (as well as the hotels and restaurants in the area).

By the way, I can offer a point of reference from my personal experience. I once attended an airshow here in Colorado that ended up being attended by 300,000 people (far more than they expected - should have seen it coming since it involved the Thunderbirds and was free to attend). Anyway, while that was a massive crowd, I can definitely tell you that the crowd in D.C. was at least several times as large as the airshow crowd.

I also attended championship celebrations here for the Avalanche and Broncos that were estimated in the 150,000 - 450,000 range (depending on year) and again the crowd in D.C. was FAR larger than any of those.

[LomanBill]

Maybe Mr. OReily needs to join Dan Rather in the “Fake but Accurate” Unemployment-Line?

His “70,000” is especially interesting in light of correspondence that has been shared with me:

“...I spoke with Chief of Washington FD and EMS, Chief Kenneth Crosswhite, telephone number 202-673-3331, and he emphatically stated that: (a) they have not estimated or guestimated crowd numbers for the past 20 years; (b) that it is in complete against their policy; and (c) that he has promised to send an email confirming his and conversation with me...”

OReily and ABC News appear to have the same source - and I'd OReaaaally like to know WHO that is.