re: #151 Charles

We reported here on several instances in which left wing demonstration organizers tried to pump up their numbers. It’s a pretty common thing.

However — I never saw the kind of insanely inflated numbers that are going around the right wing blogosphere. A typical left wing exaggeration would be taking a crowd that was about 100,000 people and claiming 250,000.

The right wingers have got them beaten by an order of magnitude. They’re inflating the numbers by ten- or twenty-fold.

The organizers of every demonstration I’ve ever been to or heard of have complained about the Parks Department undercounting their attendance numbers.

Look it up, people. The Million Man March. The Million Mom March. MLK Jr.’s March on Washington. The anti-Vietnam War Moratioria. And now this.

Either one has to believe that officialdom hates every conceivable group, from Tea Partiers to moms, and deliberately lowballs the numbers, or else every single event sponsor has an interest in inflating them for effect.

Given that reimbursement or allocations for park maintenance etc. depend in part on usage figures, it would be idiotic of the PD to lowball attendance. Therefore, logic dictates that whatever the cause of the demonstration, your most likely source for realistic numbers will be the guys who have to maintain order and clean up the mess.

So the people on both right and left who have historically screamed “you’re miscounting us for political reasons” are wack. Especially since they all say it, regardless of their viewpoints or agendas.

And yes, Charles is right: This time they’ve gone beyond mere exaggeration into the realm of fantasy. Where the Republican party has been stuck since McCain got the nomination, and where it will remain until (I’m betting) at least 2016.