Without question, the rally sponsored by Glenn Beck today in front of the Lincoln Memorial drew a massive crowd. Although there already are dueling estimates and will be more, the lowball figures concede well into the tens of thousands, with six figures a possibility. Carrie Dunn of left wing MSNBC even concedes:
Today's rally was indisputably huge. NBC's Domenico Montanaro noted one park service official's estimate of over 300,000 but please note that the park service no longer provides "official" estimates.
Scott Wong of Politico, also generally no cheerleader for conservatives, writes: Tens of thousands? Certainly. One hundred thousand? Perhaps. Half a million? No one can really say for sure.
Crowds packed the area around the Reflecting Pool, standing shoulder-to-shoulder under the canopy of trees, as they strained to see the half a dozen big-screen monitors near the Lincoln Memorial. Families huddled around the World War II Memorial fountain, dipping their feet in the water to stay cool under the August sun. And they laid out camping chairs and sun umbrellas, filling the large grassy area between the memorial and the Washington Monument.
Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit posts a collection of pictures from various sources, showing the crowd filling impressive amounts of space, and links to a Washington Post story that reports Al Sharpton's counter-rally drew only 3,000.
A one hundred to one ratio comparing the reach of Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton sounds appropriate to me. Sharpton is a has-been (really a never-was except in the imagination of a few), while Glenn Beck has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to move large numbers of people to commit time, energy, and money to a rally focusing on values.
Regardless of what skeptics may say, Beck has moved up a notch with this demonstration of his mass sway. The many on the left who hate and fear Beck already, just got a jolt of fear-based adrenalin from this event. Their loathing and inner turmoil can only increase.
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