Our reporters in the field at the rally are updating regularly here (so long as cell phone networks stay up).
Evan reports: “Sign: ‘what’s wrong with being the anti-Christ?'”
Jill also tweeting: “Pre show entertainment includes animated stewart- colbert race. Couldn’t tell who won. Seemed like someone was eaten by a bear”
TPM Reader ML reports from the U Street Metro station:
All those folks concern trolling about affluent 18-34 yr olds angering the masses are in for a surprise. More than half the people at this customarily youthful outpost (u street metro station) are well out of that age cohort. One problem: almost all white people.
Couldn’t get on train…too many ppl. Very few young ones. The demographic is genuinely surprising.
You can watch the rally live right here. Things officially kick off at noon ET.
CNN’s Ed Henry reports: “Top Democratic officials privately say they believe they are going to lose the House, but as they survey the country they are getting increasingly worried they will also lose the Senate.”
TPM Reader RB checks in from Costa Rica:
I’m in Costa Rica, with no regular C-Span or Comedy Central availability, but just discovered that Voice of America has turned over its programming to the C-Span rally coverage. You might want to inform your overseas readers who might be in the same situation.
You can also watch the live stream here.
It’s interesting. Since the debacle in Florida, I’ve seen a number of reports that national Dems are increasingly worried about losing the Senate. But Nate Silver actually has the odds moving in the other direction — now down to a 10% chance of the GOP winning 51 seats. And that jibes with my infinitely less sophisticated sense of where things are. Read More
TPM Read AL finally just bailed on trying to get to the rally:
My 5 yo and I just bailed because of crazy metro issues, but I can tell you that we were on a train near packed with boomers and older. And they were more excited than anyone else–giddy, even. Definitely an all ages event.
Somehow this seems about right. Red America shows up for a raucous, passionate, blunt rally on the mall. Blue America shows up for a tongue-n-cheek, ironic, humor-based rally on the mall with no explicit reference to an authoritarian, fear-based society but a comedian in character who makes the point indirectly.
TPM Reader KM also bailed:
I dont know how many people attended, but the crowd was overflowing the official permit area by 11am. All the way put 7th street to gallery place is walking traffic only.
They were really unprepared for the size of the crowd. No secondary speakers or jumbotrons set up.
My friends and i left because we couldn’t see anything (we’ll send pix later) but every bar in gallery place is jammed and showing the rally on tv. I’m in a sports bar, and they’re showing cspan on more tvs than football.
It’s insane down here.