D-Day

Updated As in Demo-Day. It came off wonderfully, energetically, beautifully. While earlier news reports spoke of "tens of thousands," as the day wore on the reports turned to "over 100,000," "more than 200,000," "hundreds of thousands," and treated the organizers' estimate of 400,000 - far more than the expected 250,000 - as credible. (Having the media treat organizers' estimates as credible is itself an amazing accomplishment.) It was massive. It was impressive.

I've been trying to find news coverage of what happened after, when it was expected at least some people would head for Central Park, but so far no luck. But if even 0.5% headed that way, that still could be as many as 2,000 people. I had this image of a mass of people moving up the sidewalks toward the park with police blocking all the entrances to it.

But as I said, no news that I've seen.

Now something needs to be built from there, something that will extend beyond November 2. Remember: A John Kerry win does not mean the end of the Iraq war, far from it. I'd really like to see a counter-inaugural featuring the now-famous line "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

I've said it before: The work doesn't end on November 2, it begins. But this could be a good start.

Updated to say I finally found this, from the Wichita (KS) Eagle, quoting Monday's Washington Post:

The protest organizer, United for Peace and Justice, estimated the crowd at 500,000. It was, at best, a rough estimate. The Police Department offered no official estimate, but one officer in touch with the police command center at Madison Square Garden agreed that the crowd appeared to be close to a half-million. ...

After the march, hundreds of protesters in a more belligerent mood made their way to Times Square and blocked the entrances of two Midtown hotels while another group harassed Republican guests at a party at the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park. But a post-march gathering on the Great Lawn of the park was peaceful.

Still no word on the size of the Great Lawn crowd.

Developing.... (Whoops, sorry, thought I was Matt Drudge for a second there.)