Texas President Lyndon Johnson Still Holds Record For Largest Inaugural Crowd at Pat Dollard

Texas President Lyndon Johnson Still Holds Record For Largest Inaugural Crowd

January 21st, 2009 (9) Posted By .

The Swamp:

Sattelite analysis says crowd was around a million, not two.

More than 1 million spectators convened on the National Mall to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office Tuesday, but it was unclear if the crowd surpassed the record thought to have been set at Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 inauguration. Until a number is released later this week, he still holds the record, and may in fact keep it.

Though early estimates ranged as high as 2 million people, satellite images of Obama’s swearing-in suggested the crowd was probably about half that, said Clark McPhail, who has been analyzing crowds on the National Mall since the 1960s.

“It was sparser than I thought,” said McPhail, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Illinois. “There were lots of open spaces.”

The National Park Service, which calculates crowds for large Washington events, is expected to provide an estimate this week, a spokesman said.

Johnson’s inaugural crowd was estimated at 1.2 million.

“A million rolls off the tongue very easily, but most people have no idea what it really looks like,” McPhail said.

On Tuesday morning, the Washington Post initially cited security sources who put the crowd at 1.8 million.

The Associated Press, which did its own analysis, estimated “more than 1 million.”

The park service has not done official estimates in more than a decade, complying with a congressional order to stop after a controversy over how many people attended the Million Man March in 1995. Estimates then varied from 400,000 to more than 1 million.

Park service spokesman David Barna said the agency probably would produce a number this year because of the historic nature of the event and public demand for an estimate.

“We don’t think anyone in Congress will be really upset,” he said.

McPhail pointed to relatively uncrowded sections of the mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument and to thin crowds along the parade route to explain his estimate.

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Jarhead68

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…it’s just the beginning of so many unfulfilled expectations of The Fraudulent One. One term and out!!! From my keyboard to God’s ears…can I get an “Amen”?
Top Ward

AMEN
RJI

AMENNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dagger

I hope everyone had the chance to read about the obama throngs in DC getting stuck in 6 hour lines, stuck in tunnels and missing the whole (botched) swearing in process. After all of their efforts to kiss the holy one’s ass, they got to sit in tunnels with the rest of their socialist friends.

I read a blog about an idiot who gave his last 2 years to the obama campaign and got a “purple” ticket so he could witness the inauguration. He missed the whole thing sitting in a tunnel, HAH. What a ironic foreshadowing for this poor ignorant soul.
He “served” (see ‘serfdom’) for 2 years hoping for some handout, and ended up in the trenches grasping for air with the masses. Welcome to socialism you idiot.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Americanmanthefirst charlie

BUT BECASUE HE DROPPED OUT IN 1969 WE LOST NAM
http://www.brianwsnyder.com Brian

Also heard on the radio that 38 million watched the inauguration on TV which was second to the 41 million on January 20, 1981. I was in 6th grade then and they put us in the cafeteria to watch, on the school’s lone TV, the inauguration and hostages being released (back then schools taught the greatness of America, not blame America first). The day of Reagan’s inauguration was truly historic and every one knew it, even if they can’t bring themselves to admit it anymore.
JJIrons

A BIG AMEN Jarhead68.
mike3481

Charlie

Wrap your brain around some facts….

“The Twisted Lessons of Vietnam”

Myth Number One is that the communist Tet Offensive of 1968 was a U.S. defeat. At the time, even reporters on the scene described the great damage that had been done to the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Analysts noted that the attack accomplished nothing, for the communists, in real terms.

After a few years, it was clear that Tet was a disaster for the Viet Cong. We know that because, after Tet, the United States implemented a counter insurgency plan that finished off the Viet Cong. By the time American troops left in 1972, the only threat to South Vietnam was invasion by the North Vietnamese army. That happened twice. First, in 1972, North Vietnamese tanks and infantry divisions crossed the border. With some U.S. air support, that invasion was thrown back. For almost three years South Vietnam was at peace.

Then the second invasion, in 1975, succeeded. The reason for that was not just a lack of any American air support, but the absence of U.S. support at all.

The U.S. Congress had cut off all military aid to South Vietnam. This included things like ammunition and spare parts.

By 1975, American troops had been gone for three years.

The pictures of American (Navy & CIA) helicopters evacuating people, showed American citizens and diplomats being taken out, along with South Vietnamese who could expect harsh treatment from the communists.

The U.S. didn’t lose the war in South Vietnam, the South Vietnamese did. Tet was a victory for the United States, and a major defeat for the Viet Cong. For years, you had to go dig up old newspapers, or obscure books, to find the evidence that Tet was an American victory and Vietnam was not an American defeat. But now you can just use Google. All the facts are there.

All you have to do is go look.

Many prefer not to, which is another problem.