Not that I have any chance of claiming my beer, the "wager" you called for was not “black vs white” or “Beck vs Sharpton”. The wager you requested was about
raw numbers and nothing more. You said "below 100K" for Beck/Palin and I said it would be "well above." Now you backtrack and try to change the topic into a racial issue while the wager is forgotten.
The article below was updated with time stamps throughout the day. The reporter was probably updating it from a handheld device. I pulled the following comments.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/08/live-coverage-al-sharptons-rec.html?nav=rss_email/componentsAnnounced during the Sharpton Rally:
“They (Beck) will have speakers at the rally until 1 p.m., after which the five-mile (Sharpton) march will begin, reducing the chance for a conflict.”My argument:
I posted the pictures here at 1:20 PM. The pictures appeared on the internet and TV
an hour earlier while Al Sharpton was still gathering at the high school and making those announcements.
Think about it. The walk from the school to the mall is 5 miles. Are you implying that Al Sharpton's followers left the high school at 1:00 PM and marched 5 miles to arrive at the mall
an hour earlier? 5 miles, at a brisk pace, would still take an hour and that would put them on the mall at 2:00. The instructions were to leave the school at 1 PM so how did they arrive at the mall at 12:30 to appear in the picture? They didn’t and they weren't in the picture at all. They were still at the High School.
I saw Superman turn back the clock but I didn’t think Al Sharpton was capable of the same thing!
And some conflicts in the Sharpton numbers:
1. Earlier in the day:
“Several hundred people gathered at Dunbar High School as a band sang Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" at a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton is calling the "Reclaim the Dream" march”2. Just prior to the event:
“Radio host Joe Madison says the line at Dunbar High School is still wrapped around the block because of a bottleneck through the field door.”3. A little closer to the start:
“The bleachers still weren't filled 10 minutes before the "Reclaim the Dream" rally organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton was scheduled to start. Charles "Horse" Dobson had just arrived and looked around at the crowd, which was rocking to a live band playing old rhythm-and-blues tunes”.4. And comments made by speaker at the beginning of the Sharpton Rally:
“A good portion of the football field and all of the bleachers are filled. The dozens of speakers here each have three minutes on the mike and will touch on everything from ending gun violence and gay rights to voting privileges for the District.”My take on these comments:
Sharpton’s followers filled “a good portion” of a football field (300 feet by 100 feet). That’s about a city block. And according to the earlier comments, the line wrapped around the block.
We have at least that many people at any Howell High School Football game and the line also wraps around the parking lot (also the size of a city block) And unlike Al Sharptons rally, our bleachers are filled to capacity 10 minutes earlier and his were still partially empty.
Size DOES matter and "the mall" is a wee bit larger than "a good portion of a football field."
And finally:
“When the Sharpton rally reached the mall, most of the crowd from Beck's rally had begun to disperse. Those remaining, mostly smiled politely. "We love Obama! We like Obama!" those in Sharpton's rally yelled.My take:
More evidence that there was some
minor overlapping. But again, the
picture I posted up top appeared on the internet an hour or more before the two groups converged in the streets. The picture of the crowded mall was clearly Beck’s followers and not a combination of the two.
And even if it was a combination of the two – do you
really think Sharpton's few hundred (or possibly a few thousand) would have made a difference in the total numbers?
Bottom Line:
The pictures above indicate there are many, many more people present at the mall so even if you lumped in ALL of Sharptons followers, it wouldn’t have made the total much larger.
I actually wish there were more people at both Rally's. And all 3 should have spoken at the mall instead of trying to compete with each other.
These two folks got it right:
“The intersection of Independence Avenue and 17th street was a crossroads of expressions and participants from both events came together.
As one group of black women chanted "Yes we did and get over it," those part of the Glenn Beck rally clapped and passed out Restore the Honor bottles of water.
But Brett Cummings of Gordon Ga wasn't happy. "
Look at the statement if we had all come together as one."
Katheryn Travis who came to Beck Rally from Knoxville Tenn was almost in tears. "
Dr King wanted all of us to come together. We have to believe that."
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