It seems to me that the event was largely preaching to the choir. Not that that is bad. But both the right and middle America are being energized in response to the socialists in the White House and Congress, not by Beck.
You can discount beck’s influence if you like, but i think it’s pretty obvious that he reaches a segment of the population that others do not. Not everyone is freeper-like as far as being political junkies who follow what is going on. I think beck has informed and energized a LOT of people who were casual followers of the political scene at best. And no matter that people may have been individually seething over the Marxist in the WH, beck provided a forum to vent, to do SOMETHING to demonstrate their discontent with the way things are going. And it was a visible manifestation that maybe YOU didn’t need to see, but it is not a bad thing that the MSM, the administration and others were able to see exactly how many are energized. And as someone who was there, allow me to say that it was very refreshing to be in such a large crowd of like minded individuals.