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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Bill O'Reilly is right; Glenn Beck crowd numbers will be small in D.C.

Posted on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 06:16 AM
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Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly apparently have a bet today on the size of Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

O'Reilly thinks the total will not top 40,000 while Beck is said to believe it could be 300,000.

I'm with O'Reilly on this one.

it is notoriously difficult to estimate crowds, which is why the park police in Washington no longer do it.

So expect plenty of hyperbole on both sides as to actual numbers.

But 300,000, even with Sarah Palin speaking, sounds like a very long shot.

But I think Bill O'Reilly has probably got it about right.

Beck's problem is that his followers are almost all angry white men and women.

They are ordinary people who feel left out of the current political system and that their voices are not heard.

Beck has done a spectacular job of reaching them through Fox News.

But he has done so in part by demonizing other groups, Hispanics in particular on immigration issues.

Such tactics will make lots of people uncomfortable and will impose a cap on the numbers of people who wiil follow him.

His ratings have leveled off after spectacular growth which is telling in itself.
.
He lacks O'Reilly's ability to reach more into the mainstream.

Which is why I think his numbers will be no big deal today.

Time will tell.


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64 comments

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McNamara31 | Aug 31, 2010, 03:32 PM EDT
Maloney/Hancock... You can't believe who? Do you know you are relying on a News Organization owned by an Australian born owner, and with its major investor being, a Saudi Prince. This is no comment on Australians or any other group; this is just to say they have "outside", rather than "inside", interests. Say what you want about CBS, ABC and NBC but remember they were "American born" and have approached the news with that in mind. No one could have predicted years ago the leverage this News Corp. would have on the American political system and America's world view. This News Corp. knows that stirring smears, fear and bigotry, raises the ratings like a rocket, yet they have no journalistic ethics about the fall out on this country. I have no doubt their "target audience" will be out in droves this November, voting the people who truly "Broke America" back into office. But in won't work in 2012, so I see many more years of American advancement being blocked by the party of "no", fed by the News Corp of Smear.

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McNamara31 | Aug 31, 2010, 03:20 PM EDT
Maloney/Hancock...CBS actually "hired" a firm that day to provide a count. Fox basically "asked" Glenn Beck, how many people "he thought" were there. Interviewed on Fox News, Glenn Beck said attendance for his rally was, "on the low end, 300,000 and it may be as high as 650,000." Sounds pretty much how Fox does business every day, opinions Not Facts. (87,000people =.0002% American Population)

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hancock | Aug 31, 2010, 02:42 PM EDT
Mac this is why most people can't take you liberals seriously.

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maloney | Aug 31, 2010, 02:41 PM EDT
mc-31...estimated 87000. CBS had these numbers b4 the rally. cbs-nbc-abc-msnbc-cnn, FOX has higher ratings than the rest put together. why? because the rest are liars. Hey progressive liberals. Is that the sound of bums puckering I hear?

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McNamara31 | Aug 31, 2010, 02:09 PM EDT
maloney...I think someone told you some baloney. CBS News... "An estimated 87,000 people attended a rally organized by talk-radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck Saturday in Washington, according to a "crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News" That's .0002% of the American population, on one of the most beautiful weekends Washington and the East Coast has had this summer.

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maloney | Aug 31, 2010, 12:37 PM EDT
oreilly & roberts, both wrong. at least 300,000 maybe 600,000 sounds like dems/liberals crying to me.

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McNabb1966 | Aug 30, 2010, 10:37 PM EDT
LMAO! O'Reilly and Roberts have something in common at last: wrongness!

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IrishAndProud | Aug 30, 2010, 07:38 PM EDT
Yes, indeed...I was just coming back to correct that; thanks for the note, nonetheless.

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Mairin67 | Aug 30, 2010, 06:08 PM EDT
Danger! Danger! Beck and Palin....Danger!!!!!

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jamieLM | Aug 30, 2010, 03:22 PM EDT
IrishAndProud: Alveda is MLK JR.'s niece, not his daughter - to be correct.

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IrishAndProud | Aug 30, 2010, 02:47 PM EDT
Personally, I stand with Ron Miller -- one of the many blacks who attended this in fact racially diverse gathering in Washington -- and who said [BEGIN QUOTE]: "Those naysayers who compare us to the Ku Klux Klan are despicable...by making such a ludicrous comparison, they have revealed themselves to be morally bankrupt, so they no longer warrant a hearing from Americans of good will." [END QUOTE] Oh, incidentally, MLK's daughter Alveda was there, and also addressed the crowd -- by reading her father's famous speech from that same location. Now THAT's reaching out. The race-baiting left wingers who chuck their nonsense on this post (and virtually all of whom are white, I'd guess...and some of whom are not even in the USA and maybe never have been) are NOT reaching out -- not even remotely -- nor are they even interested.

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Southernpride | Aug 30, 2010, 12:54 PM EDT
Fatherpa: the Pope was in Hitler's youth movement. A good canidate

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hancock | Aug 30, 2010, 11:54 AM EDT
Was it as terrifying as the 2008 vote for cool Jesus tour?

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irishfez | Aug 30, 2010, 11:40 AM EDT
This rally, and the collectivism of these people, is really terrifying. The minute we start re-writing history, we're in deep trouble

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Fatherpat | Aug 30, 2010, 09:54 AM EDT
"He lacks O'Reilly's ability to reach more into the mainstream." God help the US that these two bigots and rabble trousers have become the voice of the mainstream. Who's the next US idol? Somebody called Adolf?

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