Crowd inflation: 200,000 or 20,000?
Just how many showed up for the Ich bin ein beginner speech?
John Rosenthal compares the Obamedia’s estimates to German public tv’s much lower numbers.
The audacity of hype continues…
Posted in: Barack Obama
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new maths a boitch.
I wasn’t there so count me out. I would much rather have been with McCain yesterday (and no wise-man, still not voting for him) as he was at one of my favorite restaurants ever. German village in Columbus is the best. I think what this comes down to is that Obama’s people included the press in their count and the German T.V. didn’t.
Should make up the difference.
or is it fuzzy?
Must be lgm’s students.
I heard two different estimates yesterday, first it was 100,000 and then 200,000, so I said to myself “self,which is it” and I answered “niether it’s all MSM BS.”
Louis Farrakhan, call your office.
Must be New Math. No wonder the NEA is endorsing him!
My “self” quit answering me a long time ago. He only mutters, “I wish that Hefty would just shut up once in a while. Can’t I get a moment’s peace?”
LOL ;lol;
Maybe 200,000 was the number of MEDIA there!
20K or 200K, he’s still an anti-American marxist.
NoBama was at the million ( 200k ) man march….that math has been strange ever since..
Well, to garner the beer-loaded slackers who did show up Obama had to again hire some musical acts to draw ‘em in first.
The unemployable-bait this time was a rock (such as it is in Europe) band called REAMONN (band homepage) and “one of Germany’s foremost reggae artists” (can imagine that select group?) named Patrice Bart-Williams Babatunde.
Just proves the Germans love a good freak show.
1,10,50,100 WAIT wait let me take off my shoes…
I think what he was trying to say is the estimates were 1/10 what Obamamedia said they were. Something can’t be 10 times less.
Classic!
This is hilarious. Look at this picture and tell me you think that crowd is closer to 20K or 200K.
Official police estimates said 200,000. Some guy on the news said (at one point before Obama even started speaking) that there were “a couple tens of thousands.” Just that turn of phrase should lead one to question his crowd counting credentials. Unless you think the German police are in the bag for Obama as well, who are you going to believe?
I also loved this:
Sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but anyone whose been to an Obama event (and I realize that is probably none of you, so you are forgiven) knows that Obama NEVER shows up on time for his speeches. When I saw him, after standing for 5 hours, he was 45 minutes late. And they crammed 5,000 of us into a tiny auditorium (another 5,000 were left outside). I have zero problem seeing 40x that number in those pictures.
And his picture of the “distinct thinness” of the crowd at the bottom of the picture. More hilarity! Did he happen to mention just how far that was taken from the actual stage? Because I can barely see it from that pic.
They were also counting the people who WANTED to come, but couldn’t.
MistressJ,
What say you about this? You man is just digging it deeper. When do you start to question his credibility? His experience (or lack thereof)?
At least we all know lgm is going to vote for BHO because he is better looking.
chapoutier: That picture could easily be only 10,000 people. Tell you what, you start counting heads and get back to us.
Chap,
I happen to believe it would compare to the Pope numbers. My question is: How many just came out to see his glow?
My guess from the picture might be 20,000 to 30,000. Certainly not a large stadium-full of people. I live near a NASCAR track, and I know what 100,000 people looks like!
So you’re saying he is not only an empty suit of all rhetoric and no substance but he is lazy and can’t make pre-selected deadlines?
Yup, that’s what I want in a President. /sarc
How hard wwould it be to calculate the square footage from the monument to the Reichstagg and estimate how many bodies would fit?
You seem to have a real problem with actual photographic and/or audio evidence, don’t you sonofdy?
You might want to seek some professional help with that issue.
Soap-Box,
I can’t speak for anyone else, but after I saw him I was filled with a warm feeling (or maybe that was just the crush of people all packed into a tiny room) and afterward I immediately repented all my sinful conservative-leaning views, went home and tore down all my Goldwater posters, burned all my Bill Buckley books and smashed my “Ronald Reagan’s Greatest Hits” album before finally collapsing on my bed, crying and shaking ecstatically.
and after the speech they all had to report back to work at the cracker factory.
I assume he is just super busy saving our souls one at a time.
Musta really been murder for your dad’s aching shoulders!
BTW, you forgot to to use the capitol H for He/Him. But not to worry, He doth forgive. This time.
I was taught that to keep one person waiting was disrespectful. Maybe it’s different if you keep 20,000 (don’t mention 200,000, if that’s the number) waiting. Or maybe it’s OK if you’re the Messiah.
chapoutier, there is a reason for the skepticism. This is hardly the first time numbers have been inflated. When Obama spoke at the Nissan Pavilion in Virginia, estimates first came in with 20,000 in attendance. Turns out that there were only about 7,500 there, a very significant difference. Yet, many media outlets did not retract their original statements, or if they did, were very quiet about it. Rather than properly reporting the news the first time, they let people get the wrong impression and then do little to correct it.
We would not be so skeptical if the use of wrong information didn’t persist for so long even after proven wrong. Anyone remember the estimates of Iraqi civilians dead that turned out to be a huge overestimate? I still hear people using those bad numbers, long after they were shown to be just plain wrong.
The Audacity of New Math.
ROFL Chap. I have not seen him yet. I am sure to be clutching my Bible and pistol if I do go and see him though!
Cute.
Only if I make an indulgence of $25 to his campaign. Why do you think he gets so many of those?
lol soap, the SS is sure to give you a front row seat.
It’s similar to Hopenchange’s rally in Portland, Oregon (the one with the rock-n-roll band): a good working rule of thumb is to start by taking the libs’ estimate and cut it in half. Then, if there are any overhead photos available, look them over and decide whether to reduce that figure to 1/3.
It is your photo, you claim it contains a certian number of people, yet you don’t know how many people are in it? And you say I have a problem?
You photo shows alot of people, but you have no count of how many. I could also mention an aspect of it that is strange, but I will settle for you actualy counting the heads. Go.
Well if I see him, I’ll clutch the Bible but my Glock is staying concealed in its holster. No need to scare all the moonbats into a lemming frenzy, they already go blind when reading the second amendment to the Constitution as it is.
When I look at the pic it looks about the same number of guys that are usually waiting in line to use the johns at the State Fair. i.e. maybe 10-15,000.
Hint – Don’t drink much beer at the Ol’ State Fair unless you are a fan of “line-dancing”.
“That’s not the massive, quarter of a million crowd that I know!”
Whatsa matter? The BO crew run out of buses to stuff with the homeless?
Well, what about the police’s estimate? Cause they said 200,000.
Must have been a bunch of them hiding behind all those leaves.
looks like a third of a stadium to me…
about 20,000 people.
I know that “That’s not the massive one-fifth of a million crowd that I know” doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, but lets at least argue from the numbers as reported rather than making them up.
It is not surprising that this guy would blatantly lie about numbers. This is the same person who is caught in several lies every day.
He is an arrogant, shameless liar and megalomaniac.
He chose to go to the gym and be worshiped by Germans rather than visit wounded troops. Why? Because he couldn’t use them as campaign props. Then he lies about it.
http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/269302.php
chapoutier: waiting on that head count…
Hey! It’s called rounding up. MSM uses it all the time. If you can go from 20,000 to 200,000, what’s another 50, 000 amongst friends?
I just don’t understand why they didn’t schedule Obama to speak at the Reich Stag. The biggest emotion baiting, lying, cretin in modern history got his start there. Now, there is real symbolism. Barack could have had the 2,000,000 or whatever spread their blankets on the lawn and he could have multiplied some German salami and a cheap bottle of Riesling and fed them all. Nothing embodies the true spirit of Europe like a mob of drunken, farting, Germans goose-stepping around the Reich Stag.
I got up to 38,521 in what is visible in the front before I lost count.
But why does everyone think the Berlin police are lying? They said 200,000. Again THE BERLIN POLICE said 200,000.
When I go somewhere to see/hear someone speak; I position myself in a place where I can at least see where that person is speaking from. My guess is that the crowd thinned significantly under the trees. Now isn’t that convenient; the trees hide the real story. There is no way there are 200,000 people in that photo. My money is on 10s of thousands, not 100s.
why no mention of the fact that there was a concert before the obama speech? Newsbusters is the only place i see that story.
So? Since when are the police the experts on headcounts?
In large cities that demand crowd control of this type, usually, yes.
When he was in Charlotte Chap, the film on the news made the little auditorium look packed by zooming in on Obama and the crowd behind him on the floor. A week later, I found pic’s on the net that were NOT zoomed in. The auditorium seats were also almost empty and even the floor seats in front of him were sparsely occupied.
It was a total SHAM!
sonofdy, Chap doesn’t have that many fingers or toes. Give the lib some time.
chapoutier #49 – if you counted 1 person/sec. then it took you over 10 hours to count that many people! Your not to be believed.
And in any case, probably a lot more reliable than a TV reporter, whom you all seem to be putting so much faith in.
Dang. You caught me.
I read before the speach that they would not cover the pre-speach entertainment…go figure.
#48, Hannibal, don’t mean to be picky, but that would be Reichstag. Sorry.
Because our MSM is very similar to that of a communist country. They only report the “facts” you must know so that you will vote for the socialist candidate.
By the way, go look at Charpoutier, lgm, and Rusty’s candidate’s picture on the front of Drudge.
It is a perfect picture of Obama. He looks like a retarded 10 year old in a suit, basking in the limelight, being forcefully dragged up the stairs into the building by an exasperated adult. It is too true.
http://www.drudgereport.com
One way you get an idea that it’s not a humungous mass o’ humanity, chap, is to section it off. There’s those thingees on the sides that look like UFOS or sumthin’, they go from the front part of the crowd to at least the middle of the crowd. Count heads in one section defined by four of the “markers” being a
“square and then multiply the head count by the number total “squares”.
I wouldn’t go by that alone – Germany has different dialects and the number construction in German is odd to start with, for example 21 is “ein und zwanzig” (one and twenty). So it alone
wouldn’t make my ears perk up, especially if numbers are going through
German to English.
Yes, we know, our faith is misplaced if not placed in BHO.
Well, when I saw, him there was zero empty space anywhere. And in fact, one thing I forgot to mention, part of the reason he was late, and usually is, is because there is often overflow of people who do not get into the venue (as when I saw him). When this happens, he is courteous enough to give a somewhat shorter version of his speech to those left outside before addressing the main crowd.
I would be curious to see these pics and when they were taken.
Well, when you have a rock concert, beer, and brats, it brings out all the freebers for the freebies. What’s even more ironic is that the crowd wasn’t too keen on Obummer’s take on “international teamwork.” The Europeans, especially the Germans, tink that they don’t need to help NATO get rid of the Taliban. God love ‘em, I thought that the irony was just delicious.
You do know that things get smaller as they get further away in pictures, right?
was acorn signing people up?
Musta really been murder for your dad’s aching shoulders!
It just jumped out at me so I had to grab it and go with it.
May the One and The Farce be with you.
(As long as it’s not with me I don’t care)
Chap, if their hadn’t been beer and BBQ and two bands playing before his speech, how many folks do you think would have been there to see the magic negro. Most reports I read says that “almost” everyone was under 40.
Hey…remember when 250,000 actual pro-life demonstrators went out on Jan. 22 to march? Nada coverage.
By the way, this world tour? Didn’t do much to bump Obama in the polls. And McCain is gaining in battleground states.
Methinks the tarnish is wearing off the ol’ halo.
With all the coverage, all the pandering by the MSM, all the adoration from his hardcore followers – you’d think Obama’d be blasting McCain the polls.
Guess not.
Wasn’t there two concerts as well in that area?
What about this picture:
http://embeds.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/berlin2.jpg
So you have thousands facing Obama, listening to him speak. But are all the other crowds farther down the road doing? Were there other events going on at the same time? Or are they watching Obama on big screens?
When they start accurately reporting how many people come to the March for Life then I’ll start believing the Obamedia’s crowd estimates.
Get a professional photojournalist to study the backshot photo of BO and the crowd beyond, to see if his campaign employed any gimmicks with the shot to make crowds appear larger.
Also obama refused to visit wounded troops unless the press and his handlers could come. Turns out cindy mccain was told the same thing.
breitbart.com — Obama had been planning to go to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany before a flight to Paris. Gibbs said the stop was canceled because Obama decided “it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.” He went to the gym instead. I assume he was about 30-45 minutes late starting his workout.
You mean the heads or the “objects”?
At any rate, you’ll get your the head count in the first “box”, the actual amount of people would vary by box but not by a great deal since you can only squeeze so many people in the same sized space. I believe the front, where most folks will tend to gather (..thoughts of a 1979 Who concert in Cincinatti come to mind…) will yield a healthy rep count.
You could also “slice” the pic horizontally for head-counting by using the speaker columns on the right side, they look to be pretty much evenly spaced.
EnglishQueen:
Thanks for the reality. If we stay outside the reality (Obummer’s campaign) anything is possible. You can be forgiven for gaffes, lie about your experience, cancel trips to see injured troops, and channel JFK and Reagan when it suits you.
Yes, why is it that Obummer hasn’t gotten the bump? Will the convention make any differene? If McCain is at all serious about winning the presidency he needs to pounce.
I found this article in the London Times
Too Funny
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece
xler8bmw said:
Wasn’t there two concerts as well in that area?
Yup, I noted the names of the acts in a comment above. Factor in free-flowing beer and you got the “Mating Call Of The Euro-slacker” to help you out with the numbers!
Yup, saw that early this morn – and I think Michelle’s also already blogged on it today. It is good, though!
Madchef #79:
I read that very same column this morning by Gerard Baker. It was hilarious. Right out of the bible.
Did you notice the comments section? Some snarky comments from Obummer devotees about how their messiah is “misunderstood.” Most comments are favorible toward the column nonetheless.
I encourage everyone to read the Gerard Baker column. It is funny as hell. Also, don’t drink anything that you might spew onto your computer screen such as coffee or other assorted liquids. It is that funny.
I count about 60 people on a side (the line of people just behind the white tents). Let’s be generous and say 75. And lets say the spacing between the speaker towers is about the same as the width of the road. So one “square” has about 75×75 = 5625 people.
There appear to be 5 or so “squares” in the area where people are packed the tightest so 5 x 5625 = 28125 people.
In the other areas, like near the stage and way in the back, people are spread out more so let’s be very generous and say that that’s another 5 squares which is 2 x 28125 = 56250 people.
So if I’m very generous in my estimations, I can only come up with a quarter of the Obama campaign/police estimate.
Perhaps there’s other crowds out of view. Or the estimates take into account the number of people who showed up early and left of who came later. But then those additional people aren’t there to see Obama, aren’t they?
FYI….
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/07/25/laughing-at-the-lightworker/
psssst, they’re all plants.
Unless you are a Obama kool aid drinker, this seems like a monumental waste of time.
That seems reasonable. This isn’t the best pic to tell from since we don’t have the stage in it for a “full view” front to back. I’m just assuming the people in the foreground were looking up at the stage.(?)
What is helpful is it does have some “markers” which seem to be spaced evenly, receding in “size” in an appropiate exponential considering the perspective. Kinda useful, like train tracks.
I have to confess I hung around when Billy Jeff, Hill, Al & Tipper blew into my berg for a 92 campaign swing – it took an hour for them to arrive. But it was a 5 min walk from my digs, so it wasn’t a biggee.
This is beginning to sound like the “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin.” debate.
The 200,000 attendance figure is obviously inflated.
Obama’s media flacks lied.
End of story.
Boy!…Talk about getting too caught up in details…..
Gotta photo?
Here is another picture from a different angle. I swear it looks like the are doing a “Heil Hussein” gesture.
It’s so ironic. Remember how people were soooooo embarrassed by President Bush? Well, I am so totally and completely embarrassed by Obama’s European egotrip. It’s like a carnival. No other presidential candidate has ever shown this much hubris. It’s behavior like this that cause people across the pond think we are arrogant. Helloooooo???
That’s a really bad pic, Ron. The audience looks like cardboard cut-outs! (hmmmm…well, maybe….)
But yeah, you’d think a person would really try to avoid the “everybody, hand-in-hte-air!” type foto-ops when they’re at a Nazi war shrine.
The Obama blimp continues to be pumped so full of hot air….