The Tea Party is raging away. I just walked through it on the way to lunch. Quite a crowd in the boiling heat – I’d say 6,000 to 7,000. I was surprised at the number of Latinos – I’d estimate they were 20% of the raw numbers… maybe a little less. Ran into State Senator George Runner and Peter Foy by the stage. Since I was the only one of the six thousand some odd people in a suit they tried to avoid me. Fair numbers of police officers at the event. I’ll have to go to the next union rally and see if there are as many.
August 29th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Boy, the heat must have gotten to you Duane. There were maybe 2,000 folks there — a far cry from the 10,000 to 50,000 organizers predicted. At least one newspaper noted it was “far less than expected.” And those Latinos must have really stuck out because the crowd was at least 90 percent white and old. If that’s the GOP base, you’re in big trouble.
By the way, particulate levels in downtown Sacramento were significantly higher today thanks to the big rigs circling the capitol and belching their emissions in the air.
August 29th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Sacramento Bee today quotes the Highway Patrol estimating the Tea Party crowd
peaked at 4,000 people…..
Meanwhile…. Dateless Steve spends another Friday night at the keyboard, flaming
the premier Republican website. It’s kinda Sad. :(
August 29th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hey Steve,
I’m no expert on the topic of this particular rally, but I seem to recall that the estimates were that they expected between 4 and 8 thousand people there. Maybe my call was a little high – I was only there for the time it took to walk through it – but yours is certainly low. My call was in good faith.
You see, I’ll be the first to admit it’s difficult to judge how many normal people are going to show up on a blazing hot afternoon in the middle of the work day, and hard to estimate a crowd that limits your view with American flags and various signs. It’s much easier to judge turnout when you actually pay the participants… say for instance the various ‘purple shirt’ rallies that materialize from time to time. You have another advantage counting that crowd – certainly American flags are rarely blocking anyone’s view.
I didn’t notice any particular leaning in the rally towards the ‘old’ unless you consider over 40 ‘old’. Of course you consider someone earning over 70k ‘rich’ so maybe that’s the case.
You might be right. Particulate levels may have been higher in the city thanks to the big rigs and tractors that move our goods or grow our food. That’s the price we pay for allowing people to speak. I mean do we Flashreport readers complain about the rise of particulate levels in this publication when you write?
Yours,
DDD
August 29th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Libs and Rinos….something is brewing, smoldering, seething, bubbling,warping, morphing….be in ten, 1000, or 220,000.
Your political opportunites are numbered due to incompetence….we are out of money….if you come for more our backs are against the wall….don’t you get it…we are tapped out…
And it would not be surprising that Zorro, Robin Hood, Batman come to the rescue…..good always beats evil!!!
August 30th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hey Steve,
Those “big rigs circling the capitol and belching their emissions in the air” transport the food we eat and the supplies we use… and some of them may deliver the drugs you liberals use. The liberals were driving their Smart cars and Prius which are no more than speed bumps to those “big rigs” transporting our food.
The reason liberals are a dying breed is because they drive speed bumps, they abort their kids or they are in a non-propagating homosexual marriage. The only way liberals reproduce is by paying welfare queens. That is why liberals are against welfare reform.
August 30th, 2009 at 12:00 am
I found 2 great short videos that will give you an idea of how things went in Sacramento at Friday’s rally. Enjoy!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zhPA6XkCYE&feature=response_watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9pluLWZFe8
August 31st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Well, at least you guys admit it was a total flop. As Mr. Sills points out, the Bee says the CHP notes the crowd “peaked” at 4,000. Which means I was a lot closer than you were, and you can take a look at the pre-rally announcements predicting 10,000 to 50,000. I mean, heck, even Fleischman bought a ticket to come up, so clearly he thought there was going to be something write home about.
LA Times: “The organizers said they expected about 10,000 to attend today’s event … although there appeared to be substantially fewer people than predicted.”