Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
CBS News commissioned a crowd estimate from the company AirPhotosLive.com to estimate the size of the crowd at the "Beckoning" on Saturday, since the National Park Service no longer provides crowd estimates after Republicans complained about the "Million Man March" (which it wasn't). According to the aerial photography crowd estimate, Glenn Beck Rally Attracts Estimated 87,000.
AirPhotosLive.com gave its estimate a margin of error of 9,000, meaning between 78,000 and 96,000 people attended the rally. The photos used to make the estimate were taken at noon Saturday, which is when the company estimated was the rally's high point.
Organizers of the event had a permit for 300,000. Per usual for FAUX News promotional events, organizers of the "Beckoning" claimed 500,000 in attendance – a serious permit violation that Capitol Police would have shut down were there any truth to this estimate. Beck: No intention to run on 2012 ticket with Palin.
But the Grand Prize for exaggeration goes to the Minnesota Loon, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), chairwoman of the congressional Tea Party Caucus, who argued that it approached 1 million.
By the time Bachmann recounts the story of the "Beckoning" on FAUX News programs today, it will be a "bazillion" people. Every time this woman speaks I hear the "broken down merry-go-round" theme song from Looney Toons. She takes crazy to a whole new level.
By comparison, 105,000 college football fans regularly attend home games at the University of Michigan and the University of Notre Dame on any given Saturday. Ho-hum.
The 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech drew more than 250,000 people (National Park Service estimate).
The record is the Inauguration of Barack Obama. The Official Inauguration crowd estimate: 1.8 million:
About 1.8 million came to the city for the day’s inaugural events, according Leslie Kershaw, a spokeswoman for Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty. That estimate — 50 percent higher than the previous record – came from local and federal agencies in the Joint Operations Command Center, which was responsible for managing the crowd.
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The figure far surpasses the 400,000 former President George Bush drew in 2005 and 800,000 former President Bill Clinton drew in 1993.
