President Obama drew 15,000 people to hear him pitch his health care overhaul in Minnesota this past Saturday.  Meanwhile back in Washington, we had that many people waiting in line at the port-a-potties at the Taxpayer March on Washington because we woefully underestimated how many people would travel across the country to bring their message of limited government and fiscal responsibility to DC.

We're trying to figure out exactly how many people were here so we can release a reliable number.  If we had 1.5 million, we had 100 times the president's turnout.  If we had 750,000, we had 50 times as many, and if we had 300,000, we still had 20 people for every one he had.  Any of those numbers puts the Taxpayer March on Washington among the biggest ever in DC, and certainly the biggest showing by fiscal conservatives.  But the specific number is not important.  What is important is that it was a very large and significant crowd here to ask Washington for less involvement in their lives and the economy.

We thought the sound system we got to reach 100,000 would have been enough.  Most of the people in attendance couldn't hear the speakers.  We thought the permits for park space for 100,000 would be enough.  It wasn't nearly enough.  And don't even get me started on the port-a-potties.

The lack of coverage in the media is shocking, as noted in this Fox News clip:

Democratic offices in Congress warned that as many as 2 million protestors may come to town.

C-SPAN opens this online recording of the Taxpayer March on Washington, which they are showing tonight at 9 pm on C-SPAN 2, with a good clip showing part of the crowd so you can judge for yourself.  They pan left, and you see the stage was surrounded by a sea of people everywhere but on the Capitol steps, which were blocked off.

Had they panned right toward Pennsylvania Ave, NW, down which the march was still coming, you'd have seen even more people.

Perhaps the most telling images are from this time-lapse video, shot from a roof on the corner of 14th and E St, NW, looking down Pennsylvania Ave, NW toward the Capitol, showing the March.

About half way down the parade route at 6th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW, from the Newseum (appropriately dedicated to the first amendment) Mary Katharine Ham took this picture of the March:

We're hoping to get a reliable count out tomorrow, so please check back.

However big the number is, the the message is clear:  We want less.