INFLATING NUMBERS IS AN OLD GOP TRICK

The Baggers and their media supporters made fools of themselves with their grossly exaggerated claims about crowd size at the 9/12 DC rally and I found a little tidbit from Rick Perlstein's book, NIXONLAND, that shows this tactic has been used by the GOP for decades.

From page 733:

Then he [Nixon] left for a campaign motorcade through the Westchester County suburbs in New York State. He was already guaranteed a victory there. But this was Nelson Rockefeller's home county. Winning Westchester in November would be quite a fuck-you to his rival for the presidency since 1960.

Republicans announced a ludicrous crowd estimate of 425,000 (they had claimed 700,000 at his only other real campaign motorcade, in Atlanta, within a space that could physically contain only 75,000).