TPM Reader SO reports in on today’s Tea Party protests, where they appear to be keeping it real classy. Read More
The initial reports suggest that today’s Tea Bagging march on Washington is a pretty small affair. The Post refers to “tens of thousands” of protestors and says about 30,000 registered online for the march.
In a pretty transparent attempt to set expectations ridiculously high, a House leadership aide had sent out a memo to colleagues estimating up to two million people. Still 30,000 people seems a pretty small.
Let me know if you find articles with estimates today of how many people showed up and/or predictions from the organizers about how many they expected.
Also see our slideshow of the ramp up activities for this weekend’s rally.
Late Crowd Size Update: And it begins. The DC Fire Department has issued an unofficial estimate of 60,000 to 70,000 people in attendance, which is smallish by big DC protest/event standards but definitely respectable. Meanwhile, organizers and various participants are claiming one or two million have shown up but that the numbers are being suppressed by pro-Obama media, etc.
ABC News reports on Tea Party organizers falsely citing ABC News as source for 1 – 1.5 million crowd size estimates.
From TPM Reader KC …
I attended the Tea Baggers’ rally in Washington today and observed the crowd as it marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and again once it filled in the first and part of the second blocks on the mall. I cannot reliably estimate the size of the crowd, but I can compare it to anti-war rallies in Washington from 2003 to 2005.
TPM Reader AG went too …
I was at the Lawn with all of the red shirted, white, angry Beck loving neo-patriots and there in no way it was a million people or even close. There were small groups huddled around the Glen Beck inspired flags and the usual disaffected white males wandering in groups with the American flag desecrated by being incorporated into clothing. Having been to the exact same location for the Obama Inauguration and other large political events, this was small fry in comparison. However, it was an angry group with a real sense of absolute entitlement. Something not focused on by many. This sense of entitlement that they deserve to be the dominant deciders and that it’s being taken away.
From TPM Reader CJ …
I went down to the protest on the mall today just to have a look. The crowd was actually pretty impressive. I didn’t have a good vantage point of the whole crowd, but I would say there were easily tens of thousands, maybe upwards of 50 thousand. But I was amused to hear more than one person really inflate those numbers. I overheard a guy on his cell phone saying there were two million people there, and another woman say a million and a half.
See the excerpts from Obama’s interview tonight on 60 Minutes.
Obama marks the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers today with a major speech in New York City on the financial crisis. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Last night 60 Minutes aired its interview with President Obama, taped on Friday. Watch.