UPDATE: Turns out the “official” 60K-70K figure wasn’t so official. In fact it was some guy talking out his ass. (Still working on fixing this blog, sheesh.)
UPDATE: Some less questionable figures here. Don’t you wish the MSM could do basic math?
We had somewhere between seventy thousand and two million people march into Washington in what has got to be the cleanest and most peaceful angry mob of terrorists to ever march on a nation’s capitol.
(The asshat who wrote the terrorism quote deserves the Godwin award for inappropriate and offensive analogies: “Glenn Beck is an actual terrorist, and the people attending his rally in DC tomorrow are al-Qaeda in America.” Really, Mr. Pareene? Too bad the government isn’t offering cash for clues, or perspective bailouts.)
Also, that “two million” figure is kind of interesting. Most of the bloggers I’ve seen are skeptical of it, and the origin of the figure as far as I’ve been able to source it, comes from a memo out of the Democratic Congressional leadership. The author of the post about it theorizes that it might have been a way to try and raise impossible expectations so the protest looked like a failure (HA HA you only got 20% of our inflated estimate) If that’s the case, it was a serious misfire. The number got picked up and passed through enough news sources that people quoting the figure had MSM backup, going to show how full of crap the MSM is. Since most people aren’t forensic photo analysts, they’ll see a crowd picture and just think “that’s a hell of a lot of people.” They’ll go with whatever number they’re told about the picture; ten thousand, hundred thousand, a million. After a certain point our eyes just see “many.”
My guess is somewhere between 100K and 350K.
3 Comments
michelle · September 14, 2009 at 9:12 am
“Cash for clues” – ROFL – that was priceless. My guess on attendance would be more like 500 – 600k. First hand reports are telling me that the march started 2 hours early simply because as people walked up behind, the ones in front moved forward and next thing you know, they were marching, 2 hours early. What I found interesting was what happened on Facebook. My conservative friends that were going to the rally were all networking with each other to share hotel rooms, rides, etc. Now THAT is grass roots. And from what I’m hearing, lots of people who only knew each other from Facebook made real tangible friends this weekend.
It should also be pointed out that the march on DC was the biggest of the rallies – but it was only ONE of the rallies. There were rallies held all across the country on 9/12 in places like Fort Worth and Chicago, etc.
Steve Ramey · September 14, 2009 at 2:29 pm
It was a large group of concerned citizens. No question of that. What bothered me was that the few I saw interviewed on TV were idiots, spouting the conservative “president is a liar, bless Joe Wilson” or “I’m not paying for illegal aliens to have health insurance”. How many folks were actually informed people with genuine concerns rather than zombies marching to the conservative dumbeat? It’s ludicrous that we cannot find a way to join the other nations of this world and provide basic health care for our citizens. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? A well-armed militia is interpreted to mean citizens can own semi-automatic hand guns, but “life” is not interpreted to include health and well being? Why not? Are we really that greedy that individual wealth trumps our fellow citizens’ health? It’s a problem, not a political opportunity.
S Andrew Swann · September 14, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Of course the few you saw interviewed on TV will be cherry-picked to support the narrative of the interviewer. The whole illegal claptrap comes from the fact that there’s language in the bill that defunds the care of illegals, but other language that mandates that service is provided regardless. So, taint paid for in the “public option” but you still gotta do it and pass the cost along to everyone else.
This is in fact the status quo, and IMO not a terribly important part of the argument, but it does lend credence to the claim that Obama is being disingenuous when he says that reform won’t cover illegal immigrants. Phrasing it that way, even bringing up the argument, is pandering to a group of people that won’t jump on the train to begin with.
I will say that the proportion of zombies was probably a much lower percentage than you’d find, say, at any given ACORN/SEIU rally.
BTW, not to be a pendant, but you’re conflating the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution & Bill of Rights: and as originally intended were not mandates on what a State must do, but as a limitation on what a State was permitted to do.
By “other nations,” I’m presuming that you mean other industrialized western democracies (and Japan). And, frankly, most of the comparison metrics I’ve seen between the US and other countries rely on rather squishy numbers. (Defining “access to care” is a big one. It may not be cost-effective, but a completely uninsured person in the US walks into the ER in this country needing an appendectomy, they’ll be rolled into the operating theater. Some places in Europe, most notoriously the UK, you’ll get put on the list to see a surgeon– but when you do, it’s paid for.) The other squishy numbers relate to life expectancy and infant mortality which are directly tied to lifestyle issues that would remain unchanged however we pay for things.
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