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Bachmann, Other Conservatives Claim Tens Of Thousands At Tea Party Yesterday -- Or Even A Million!
Eric Kleefeld | November 6, 2009, 11:57AM
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So how many people showed up at Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) Capitol Tea Party? According to its right-wing supporters, it was anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 -- to one million!
"Estimates are anywhere between 20 and 45,000 people had assembled," Bachmann boasted on Sean Hannity's TV show last night.
On Greta Van Susteren's show, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) said: "I'm a bad estimate at crowds, but tens of thousands. I've heard 25 to 50,000."
On G. Gordon Liddy's radio show, his producer Franklin Raff said that the crowd was "just as big or bigger" than the 9/12 Tea Party march, which he had previously estimated to be about a million.
NBC's Luke Russert got an estimate of 3,000-3,500 people, from a Capitol policeman. As Think Progress points out, a photo posted by rally supporter Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) showed that the crowd did not even take up the full area of the Capitol building's lawn, and could not have been more than a few thousand people.
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chimpale
November 6, 2009 12:03 PM
I can't imagine Michele Bachmann lying about something like that. She's usually such a stickler for getting her facts right:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/personalities/michele-bachmann/statements/
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Walter Mitty
November 6, 2009 12:03 PM
Let them exaggerate the numbers because it emboldens them to think they are a bigger influence than the really are. Now if they know they're lying then that shows that they were self-conscious about the small turn out, and if they believe the numbers they're spouting than they're nuts.
Not to mention free bus transportation was offered by a certain billionaire.
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chimpale
November 6, 2009 12:09 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
I think it's safe to say that at this point the Republican Party as a whole has dismissed the notion of 'true vs. false'. By their reckoning, it's true if you want it to be true and/or saying it over and over again bestows truthiness upon it.
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CT Voter
November 6, 2009 12:14 PM in reply to chimpale
"True" is anything, anything a Republican says. And the "liberal" media swallows it, hook, line, and sinker.
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CT Voter
November 6, 2009 12:10 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
Let them exaggerate the numbers because it emboldens them to think they are a bigger influence than the really are
I tend to agree with this except for the braindead "liberal" media will also spout nonsense about the "movement", and spineless politicians who are interested only in protecting their job security will get spooked.
As usual.
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mostman
November 6, 2009 12:43 PM in reply to CT Voter
Let them. It deepens the GOPs "silent majority" delusion even deeper. Let them think that this sort of thing is working - that there is some sort of uprising in the making. In 2010, when the elections roll around, and we find the climate still much the same as it was in 2008, they will be left wondering what happened. Let them believe that the path to House majority is through candidates like Hoffman. Let them believe that the path to the White House is through candidates like Palin. Let them believe that opposition to Health Care is popular.
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neilhell
November 6, 2009 12:57 PM in reply to mostman
Yes! And: Presumably, there were more a few Teabaggers at this rally--sorry, protest--sorry, "press event", who were also at the 9/12 lovefest. And even if they would never utter such heresies, they must have noticed that there were fewer people at this one. So, at the heart of the effort here is a willful denial of reality. I'm hoping that this, perspective persists in 2010 and beyond: "We got 25,000 votes!" Actually, you got 5,000...
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Michael A
November 6, 2009 12:17 PM
But, but, but, we should totally cower and succumb to the power to the teapartiers. Totally f*ck up the country and 299,997,000 million people, because 3,000 racist idiots acted like complete fools and "stormed" the capital.
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Dorn76
November 6, 2009 12:18 PM
Did we expect a decimal point or two would matter to these people?
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musgrove
November 6, 2009 12:20 PM
They were counting all the voices inside the tea baggers head.
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bluesplashy
November 6, 2009 1:39 PM in reply to musgrove
LOL!
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Peter Principle
November 6, 2009 2:11 PM in reply to musgrove
Ain't enough room in the continental US for all of those.
Maybe if you include Alaska, though.
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Matt Jones
November 6, 2009 3:09 PM in reply to Peter Principle
Including Alaska doesn't help - you'll pick up the Talibunny and her supporters. Then things will be *really* crowded.
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Steaming Pile
November 6, 2009 12:22 PM
It was that Soviet Red Army crowd estimator software. Yuri swore up and down the thing worked really good.
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CT Voter
November 6, 2009 12:45 PM in reply to Steaming Pile
O/T: That is an awesome avatar!!
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CajunModerate
November 6, 2009 12:24 PM
We really do like a dick measuring contest, don't we?
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AnswerFrog
November 6, 2009 12:28 PM
Interesting aside on the kookfest:
http://www.slate.com/id/2234845/
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Matt Jones
November 6, 2009 1:58 PM in reply to AnswerFrog
Poetic justice would have been the Capital health staff letting him die, as he clearly didn't want any "government-run healthcare". I hope they send they guy a bill.
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cmaukonen
November 6, 2009 12:29 PM
It doesn't matter how many there were, we simply do not have enough room in the mental facilities for all of them.
C
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Kuyleh
November 6, 2009 12:30 PM
Pathetic.
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Avvocato
November 6, 2009 12:31 PM
The crowd estimators are all graduates from the University of ... I don't remember...
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Michael A
November 6, 2009 12:38 PM in reply to Avvocato
Regent university.
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traitorjoe
November 6, 2009 12:38 PM
My 27 million followers agree that Tea Party numbers were vastly inflated.
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Lilybart
November 6, 2009 1:18 PM
I know. Lets wildly overestimate out next rally and see if the cables and networks make it a huge story that we lied.
Of course, when we have millions, REAL millions marching against the war, it is barely a story anyway.
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jvwalt
November 6, 2009 1:45 PM
Technically speaking, Bachmann is correct -- "between 20 and 45 thousand." Not "20 thousand and 45 thousand."
My own estimate is 22. Heck, let's round it up to two dozen.
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jvwalt
November 6, 2009 1:45 PM
Technically speaking, Bachmann is correct -- "between 20 and 45 thousand." Not "20 thousand and 45 thousand."
My own estimate is 22. Heck, let's round it up to two dozen.
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Michael A
November 6, 2009 2:04 PM in reply to jvwalt
Too funny, I didn't pick up on that and I am sure many didn't. Very funny, typical repuke bull, she is technically correct. Just like when the repukes "technically" didn't say iraq had anything to do with 9/11. They just threw the word iraq in right between al queda and 9/11
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biged242
November 8, 2009 3:58 AM
"One MEELION people!"
Dr. Evil
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Silence
November 9, 2009 9:45 AM
It was a very good turnout. I don't know what the real number was, but people came from all around the country and on very short notice. The entire front lawn of the Capitol was full and there were very long lines at the surrounding congressional office buildings.
Next year's 9/12 march is clearly going to be an historical event.
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