Posted on 08/26/2010 5:57:21 AM PDT by STONEWALLS
When Fox News and talk radio host Glenn Beck comes to Washington this weekend to headline a rally intended to "restore honor" to America, he will test the strength - and potentially expose the weaknesses - of a conservative grass-roots movement that remains an unpredictable force in the country's politics.
Beck, who is both admired and assailed for his faith-based patriotism and his brash criticism of President Obama, plans in part to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. as an American hero. He will speak on the anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech, from the spot where King delivered it.
Some "tea party" activists say the event, at which former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is also scheduled to speak, will have a greater impact than last September's "9/12" march along Pennsylvania Avenue. Though the attendance figures for that anti-tax rally are disputed, it was the first national gathering to demonstrate the size and influence of the tea party movement.
But with just a few days before the Beck rally, basic questions linger, including how big it will be and whether the event, which Beck says is nonpolitical, will help or hurt Republicans in November. Also unanswered is whether Beck can pull off the connection to King without creating offense - or confrontation with another event the same day led by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Beck said in a recent broadcast that he did not intentionally choose the "I Have a Dream" anniversary for his rally - but that he believes the coincidence is "divine providence."
"Whites don't own Abraham Lincoln," he said. "Blacks don't own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character, and that's really what this event is about. It's about honoring character."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
However many they estimate, add 50% (because they lie) and then multiply times 10 (for all those who wish they could go but can’t).
Will the event be covered on Fox News?
Every time Beck schedules a rally, I am out of town on vacation and can’t go. Last year, it was 9/12. Same situation this time. I think I need to give him a call before I schedule my vacation next year!
They didn’t report a thing about the 9/12 rally and now they are shaking in their boots so much that the inly thing keeping the soles afixed is the glue because the stitching is already severed. They don’t define what success will be so they can claim whatever the turnout, it will be labeled as low, just like they tried for 9/12.
WaPo is clueless (on purpose) - 8/28 is not about politics.
Here is this person writing for the Post and saying that this weekend will make Glenn Beck sink or swim.
If there are a million people there the Post will report that hundreds attended, but the Al Sharpton rally will draw millions.
I will be one of them there and there are two bus’s from my small community going. The original bus sold out in a couple of hours they had to get another one.I look for a good crowd.
Godspeed Glenn...
May your rally shake Washington to it’s core.
I didn't hear the whole thing, but I think I heard Beck say that FOX was NOT going to cover it.
Check with your local (conservative) talk radio stations...our will be broadcasting it, live, on Saturday. Maybe others will be too.
Thanks!
Am I the only one chuckling at the Compost’s blatantly obvious attempt to make Beck=tea party? Glenn Beck is a reasonably good fellow, but he ain’t the TP by any stretch of the MSM’s imagination.
LOL. Why do we never see the Washington pile of comPost talk about the “strength” of B.O.’s ideas?
I never thought of Glenn Beck as THE LEADER of the Tea Party. We all are Tea Partiers now. :)
How many lefty commentators and bloggers will compare Beck’s rally to a gathering of Nazi Brownshirts in 1931 Germany???
Another opinion-based diatribe masquerading as a factual article from the “AP”
Regards
One day we’ll stop organizing for media influence & start organizing for impact.
No. I think they took too much heat from getting involved in the 9/12 rally.
We’re all painted with their very broad brush nowadays.
I stumbled onto MSNBC by accident yesterday and watched a few minutes of Chrissy Mathews talking about the Beck Rally. He and two others were so full of hate that I found it very disturbing. I don’t understand how people can be like this. Anyways, they described the rally as “Beck making noise”. One of the panel said ‘saying blacks don’t own MLK is an insenstive remark’. I’m sure they went on to say adult things like ‘Beck has boogers’ but I had to turn the channel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.