Protest Turnout
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You can blame Louis Farrakahan if you want to:
For 30 years, measuring crowds rested on the shoulders of the U.S. Park Police, which divided the Mall into sections, used aerial photographs to determine the density of the crowd and issued a headcount. The numbers often were disputed. After officials estimated the Million Man March in 1995 was more like the 400,000-Man March, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakahan threatened to sue. Congress later mandated that the Park Police, an arm of the National Park Service, bow out of the counting business.
But one protester made a good point:
"I wish we wouldn't get so hung up on numbers," said Morgan, from Takoma Park. "It's false to assume that if you have a million people on the Mall you're somehow more right than you are if you have 200,000 people on the Mall. The message doesn't acquire greater value."
Too bad Bush wasn't there to see the protest with his own eyes. He was at Camp David. Does the man ever work?