Sunday, February 27, 2011

Tea Party Performance Was Worse Than We Thought

Michael Bersin at Show Me Progress posted some photos from the dueling rallies yesterday and, wow, it was even worse than I realized for the tea party. From the photos, it looks like they have 40-50 people tops, while the pro-union side has many, many more.

2 comments:

  1. I e-mailed Wes Duplantier from Facebook. He wrote the story found at StLToday.com about both rallies in Jefferson City on Saturday.

    I asked where he got the 200 number for the Tea party. Was he actually at the rally or did someone from the Tea Party "phone it in" and he accepted their estimate.

    I'm not sure I'll hear back from him but I thought I'd pass along my effort. Someone has to be a journalist and check sources.

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  2. Wes Duplantier who had the story on the rallies in Jefferson City answered my questions about the size of each rally.

    He wrote "I was actually at the statehouse rallies. I was there for 2 1/2 hours after it began around noon. Turnout at the tea party's rally was smaller than organizers or attendees had thought it would be.

    Organizers from both sides (tea party and union supporters) had told the media that they expected big crowds, so I believed they would give inflated crowd sizes if I had asked. I attempted to count the tea party attendees and union supporters myself at several points throughout their demonstrations.

    Initially, there were about 200 people at the tea party rally. However, this number dropped quickly because it was cold out. When the union supporters marched by the tea party rally (did they take the photos you mentioned), there may have indeed been about 50-75 tea party demonstrators left."

    I replied and thanked him for his quick reply and information.

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