Posted on 09/12/2009 2:21:15 PM PDT by Zakeet
Edited on 09/12/2009 4:03:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Huge crowd, yes. But not two million. Even DeMint has now changed his first boast on this. Malkin is wrong because the police do not give estimates.
We were there and have seen a lot of crowds on the mall for inaugurations, July 4th festivities, marches, etc. Two million would not fit on the Mall in its two mile stretch.
Best estimate from experience? - 200,000 plus. For those familiar with the Capital and the Mall, the crowd filled the Capital west lawn, the area around the Grant reflecting pool, and west to Fourth street. It started encroaching on another group’s permit west of the Grant statue. It could be another 100,000 to 200,000 because they were forced to spread out along the sides of the rally because of the permit limits and the loudspeakers’ range.
It was a very large crowd, far beyond expectations, but too many groups inflate the numbers (mostly libs). It was NOT “tens of thousands” as the CNN NBC crowd are trying to say, but more like hundreds of thousands. BTW, the DC or Park Police do NOT make estimates, so anyone saying so is wrong.
Not bad for a rally organized by amateurs with no coordinating megalith like unions or the NAACP. Just real people. Almost ALL of the thousands of signs were handmade, not the fancy pre-printed ones handed out by liberal groups like MoveOn and SEIU.
I posted this on earlier threads. Now reports coming out are backing up my estimate. 200,000 (up to 400,000 because many were off to the side in the nether reaches of the Capitol lawn) is a HUGE number - four full Yankee Stadiums. Let’s not get carried away with the 2 million claim and give the left an opportunity to refute everything else.
And it was true grass roots. Almost ALL the signs were handmade, not the product of SEIU and DNC printing presses that characterize liberal rallies.
How many congressional representatives are in the crowd?
Were you even there? According to my husband, there were at least 30 port-a-potties in a parking lot right by where we were at the Peace Memorial. And 30,000 was the number officially registered and expected by Freedom Works ALONE!
Actually they stopped because Louis Farrakhan threatened to sue them for not saying he did so have a Million Men.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-860151.html
Upthread, there's a picture of the Million Man March, which the Park Service estimated at 400,000. There were far more people than that at today's rally.
I was there too, and I'll say at least half a mil, based on the July 4th and March for Lifes I've been to. I thought the 1.5 mil I heard was high, but after looking at comparative overhead shots of the MMM and today, I think it's close.
Just telling you what ABC reported. I wasn’t there.
I feel for him. Were there no empty bottles and friends who would stand around him protectively?
No idea why the Park Service didn’t put up more johns, but it does seem like they didn’t anticipate the turnout accurately.
Tell Jim that....
From what I have seen in a brief viewing this afternoon of Foxnews online, it was wall-to-people.
Malkin has done some shoddy reporting today, relying on some twitter person for unsubstantiated figures.
Thanks for the comparison of the “after” shots - that is both amazing, and sad. Of course the Obama Coronation had like 36 billion folks there, and the Tea Party just had a few dozen folks from Iowa so....
+1
I was close enough to see the speakers (ant-sized) and video screens (pinky-nail-sized), and there were probably that many people just between me and the Capitol building.
If, as they say, the crowd spilled all the way back to the Washington Monument, then it was *easily* over 1 million, at least.
I would love to see an aerial picture taken around 2:00pm. But I saw only two helicopters fly overhead during the five hours (11:00am-4:00pm) I was there.
look at Google News from those asshat Red Diaper babies....nothing on their news page
Thanks for being there and for your report.
They (The Park Police?) tried to say you didn’t have a permit??
Unreal.
Good to hear your report also!
Woohoo for sure!
EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT CODE PINK!!!!
Today was certainly far larger than any of the misnamed anti-war protests that took place from 2002 through 2007... especially when you add in the related protests throughout the country today.
I bet that the fascist little brat in the White House is going to be in full-on angry and lecturing mode for the next few weeks. Tinpot Marxist dictators can't stand opposition.
Absolutely no doubt about that. I was there; you could have easily filled a bunch of stadiums with that crowd.
My sense was that the Capitol Police were caught off guard by the huge turnout that was relentlessly swarming into the west side of the Capitol.
There’s the man! Thank you for that great photo of Jim Rob!
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.