An estimated 215,000 people attended a rally organized by Comedy Central talk show hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News.
The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance at the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which took place on the Mall in Washington. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 10 percent. (See some of the pictures used to create the estimate here.)
CBS News also commissioned AirPhotosLive.com to do a crowd estimate of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in August. That rally was estimated to have attracted 87,000 people. Amid criticism from conservatives that the estimate was low, CBS News detailed the methodology behind it here.
Warning. I will now piss on everyone's parade.
I suppose when we're on the eve of having our assnecks kicked up and down the ballot, it's fair to want to cling to the significant attendance numbers from Saturday's Stewart/Colbert event.
But before we get too cocky about it, I think it's important to temper any gloating with some serious humility at the fact that we (progressives, etc.) have been fully out-hustled at every turn throughout the last two years, and Tuesday night's election, regardless of Saturday's numbers, will be a blood bath. Much of it can be attributed to being totally drowned out by an incomprehensible, contradictory movement that's ultimately more bluster than substance. There's nothing to be proud of right now. Nothing.
But anyway. Our crowd was bigger. Yay.