Don't worry. The right wing nuts and their media enablers will spin these numbers into the tens of thousands.

And 3 posts this morning on Political Animal to boot!

And don't forget, the Opryland Hotel is HUGE with tons of convention space. If there had been demand, they could have found space easily.

600 patriots is still impressive, considering the recession.

Also I know many delegates didn't make it to the final event because they were still hung over from the tailgate party. But they will still be buying the video of Governess Palin's speech.

A manufactured event, designed to get air time on TV--I wish I could be bothered enough to come up with the analogy--maybe the time when they trot out the film/photo op airliner exit ramp for the President that no one else has used since 1975.

It's a fake event that might look real on TV. But which enterprising TV reporter will start interviewing some of the masses of other reporters trying so hard to make it an event?

Or look around Nashville and find say, a quilters' convention with ten times the attendance?

So, all totaled, the event took in $229400. And how much of that went to Palin to speak? Subtract that, and the cost of booking the room, and boy, they raked in a lot of cash to help their candidates win elections!

Comparing this to the first YearlyKos event seams odd. The firs Tea Parties were last year, some of which had thousands of participants...

"Governess Palin's"

Pay attention troll, she quit halfway through her term. That makes her Governless Palin. So what was the proportion of minorities at this big event?

The MSM just love to pump up right-wing noise, and downplay or ridicule progressive gatherings or protests.

The media attention seems a little disproportionate to what, by all appearances, was an underwhelming get-together.

The NPR headline on the Teabugger conference was "Palin Electrifies Tea Party Convention In Nashville". I don't recall a headline "Daily Kos Founder Electrifies Yearly Kos Convention".

"The media attention seems a little disproportionate to what, by all appearances, was an underwhelming get-together."

Hmmmm. Why would that be?

I think the first Netroots Nation was YearlyKos and it drew about 900 people, or so I've read.

The media coverage of Teabagger-mania last summer was through the roof, yet every town hall meeting, every rally was sparcely populated. Oh they came in tight with their cameras to give the impression of a larger crowd, but as soon as the camera moved all pulled back the truth was clear.

The Tea bagger movement is a corporate creation to advance a big business agenda. The media lapdogs are just doing their duty.

...a bizarre dynamic -- one reporter for every three participants...

Um, isn't this pretty much how every "right-wing protest movement" gets covered?

gee, there's "something" in our society desiring to create a huge right wing, ignorant and angry mob of political activists...

i wonder what that "something" is...

This past summer, some pretty well-known knitters organized the first (and so far only) Sock Summit convention. They had 30,000 people vying for 1800 spaces when they opened the on-line registration.

That's right, you had more than twice as many people show up to knit socks than showed up for the Tea Party convention, and at a pretty similar cost, too.

maybe al meant "governess" in an S&M kinda way.

The numbers are less important that what happens after. As a cautionary tale, I point you to a concert the Sex Pistols gave very early in their career. It was attended by about 37 people. But it's estimated that each of those 37 went on to start a band.

Well gosh - I was watching Fair and Balanced Faix nooze this morning and they assured me that it had been a real success and that Sarah had SLAMMED Presnit Obama. That's all I need to know

Steve Benen wrote: "It's all terribly odd. The first Netroots Nation gathering (the conference formally known as Yearly Kos) had 1,400 attendees. The Tea Party convention had less than half this total. The media attention seems a little disproportionate ..."

If it really seems "terribly odd" to you that the half-dozen giant corporations that own and control virtually all of the mass media in America use that power to marginalize, exclude and ignore progressive grassroots politics, and to legitimize, promote and build up a fake, phony, corporate-sponsored, pseudo-ideological "Astro-Turf" fraud consisting of weak-minded, ignorant, mean-spirited, brainwashed stooges of right-wing talk radio, well, I hardly know what to tell you.

It doesn't seem terribly odd to me at all. It seems terribly normal.

"As a cautionary tale, I point you to a concert the Sex Pistols gave very early in their career. It was attended by about 37 people. But it's estimated that each of those 37 went on to start a band."

Posted by: Bat of Moon at 12:34 PM

Seems like an apt comparison. More pissed off people that couldn't play their instruments creating spinoffs that were noisy, obnoxious and short lived.

And maybe someone can even name a handful of those offshoots of musical nihilism but I doubt if many of their out of tune notes and screams are coming out of speakers today.

It was great that real punks wanted to go down spitting and choking on their own bile and vomit. Good on 'em. The one's they were hardest on were their own tattooed, chained, punctured and anemic selves. Not many bystanders who weren't in that little world gave a damn.

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Teabaggers. Ha-Ha. That's perfect.

Bizarre. We're killing our oceans, but you won't get 200 journalists to pay attention to that. They WILL, however, show up to a manufactured political rally.

Less than a town-hall meeting in a blue state. A free and fair media would ignore this movement henceforth. But they are actually the ones pushing it.

"Up to 2 million" includes the number 600.

So attendance was up to 2 MILLION!!!!

Hey! I go to the American Geophysical Union meeting every fall in San Francisco - about 11,000 people! How about some coverage? We'd love 200 reporters !!!!

"Up to 2 million" includes the number 600.

So attendance was up to 2 MILLION!!!!
Posted by: rewinn on February 7, 2010

That might be pushing it, but I wouldn't be surprised if FOX News footage cut to a certain winter inauguration not so long ago or perhaps even a summer TEA rally in D.C. to show the overwhelming attendance. At a bare minimum, they will include the 200 journalists, their camera crews, and security in the grand total, which will put the confab in the "thousands".

Hey! I go to the American Geophysical Union meeting every fall in San Francisco - about 11,000 people! How about some coverage? We'd love 200 reporters !!!!

I'm tempted to reveal that a million cheap tea party types gathered on a hillside near Nashville and Palin came to speak. Maybe pass some smoked salmon and baguettes around, too. Of course not a bit of trash, not even a gum wrapper, was left behind. And the Media ignored it, just as the media ignored the million tea partiers on the Mall a while back.

And don't forget, the Opryland Hotel is HUGE with tons of convention space. If there had been demand, they could have found space easily.

Excellent point. The damn place is like a whole separate universe. They have about 3000 rooms, to start with.

You'd think they could come up with at least 600 lunatic Birthers.

Weeks and weeks of noise about this event and only 600 people showed up? That's fuckin' *retarded*.

Greenwald, as usual (IMO), has some interesting things and RW hypocrisy to point out

and also linked to a local blogger at the Nashville Post ..

Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement

clip:

"Sarah Palin didn’t give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address. It was a purely political speech designed to position her for a presidential run in 2012 or 2016. Period. She wasn’t there to celebrate the organic nature of a movement she had nothing to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers. And she did."

Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement

given her track record..

i am sure the tea baggers were happy that palin was able to complete her speech...

I believe the relatively high-cost, low-turn-out scenario was predesigned to be that way. The repubs have taken some heat over the tea-baggers because so many of them are legitimately insane. The high cost of the event kept the insane at home but ultimately will not alienate them. Meanwhile, the event also allowed tea-bagging planners to identify 600 VERY important people: republican tea-baggers with MONEY.

It was an absolute win-win of the highest order for the republicans. Minimum crazy/maximum exposure. And a participant list that will be worth millions and millions of dollars over the next two years.

Burro: maybe someone can even name a handful of those offshoots of musical nihilism but I doubt if many of their out of tune notes and screams are coming out of speakers today.

I dunno, man. Joy Division, New Order, Electronic, The Happy Mondays, The Smiths [Morrissey was reportedly there], New Musical Express have all left some mark on the face of modern alternative music. Many are still heard today and/or are covered by other bands.

I do find it ironic that your descriptions of the punk movement matches the descriptions of early rockers [like: The Beatles, Elvis, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who [see the Super Bowl], Springsteen, Dylan, Little Richard, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, etc. etc. etc.] made by old people in their day. Granted, the Sex pistols ain't The Beatles. But their influence on those few in attendance in Manchester, and ultimately popular music since, cannot be over estimated. Green Day, Pearl Jam, Nirvana [for god's sake], and on and on and on.

Peggy Noonan was on Morning Joe this morning and said there were 1000 attendees.