Some photos and video from the anti-Iraq-war peace rally today in DC

(click for larger photo)

First, some quick video - about a minute, but you get the sense of it. Turnout was very good. I don't buy "a quarter of a million," but 50,000 yes. It's hard to tell, folks were already marching in the street, they were away from the mall area - where it's way easier to tell the crowd numbers by comparing to previous marches. Still, that's my impression form the streets. It was a good number.



It was an interesting mix of people. Rather young, which was very interesting. Lots of students, and kids in their 20s. And not your usual peacenik crowd - these kids looked like upper middle class college kids (not an easy crowd to motivate politically). The march was well organized, no violence or anything out of line that I saw. There were several people carrying American flags, which was a nice touch and interesting for a peace march. Along the mall there were various stands set up for t-shirts and literature etc. I can't say I saw a one that reached out to me - this was clearly an anti-war crowd rather than an anti-Iraq-war crowd (I consider myself among the latter). It was their rally, not mine - I didn't feel a part of it, there just weren't "people like me" there, but still it went well, was well behaved, and again, Joe and I were surprised to see so many young people from the kind of background you wouldn't expect to be protesting - this was good, and something the Democratic party needs to realize and come to terms with. People are ticked.

And here are some photos (as always, the photos are clickable to see larger versions):