WASHINGTON - Saturday's "Restore Sanity and/or Fear" rally, organized by comedian-newscasters Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, was the biggest national political rally of the season. Stewart and Colbert had kept the message of the event under tight wraps. On Saturday, speaking to the crowd, they framed it as a demonstration for national unity and a rejection of fear-mongering by the news media.
But many of the thousands of participants had a more specific political message in mind. And the date of the event, so close to Election Day, was clearly not a coincidence. "Vote Sanity 11.02.10" stickers were distributed throughout the crowd.
Michelle Byers was holding several stickers. "Well, they were technically non-partisan," she said, referring to Stewart and Colbert. "But President Obama and the Democrats are clearly not the fear mongers."
While there were fewer than Stewart's facetious estimate of 10 million attendees, tens of thousands, mostly from the East Coast, but also from as far away as Alaska, converged on the National Mall here. No exact count of attendees is available, but it is clear that the event dwarfed any rally in recent years.
"When I left New York this morning, the newspapers were talking about a Yemen bomb plot," said Shafron Williams, of Jersey City, N.J. "I feel like I took a 'time out.' I needed this. I'm dancing to the 'Love Train.'"
rest at http://peoplesworld.org/stewart-and-colbert-draw-mammoth-crowd-with-many-messages/
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