Friday, October 31, 2008

Could an Obama inauguration be the biggest ever?

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Here's a trivia question: What President had the largest inauguration?

Answer: Lyndon Johnson, 1964, estimated 1.2 Million

But that record might be on its last legs:

If Barack Obama is elected president Tuesday, his campaign staff will wake up the next morning with one very odd — but very important — job on their hands: ordering port-a-potties for 500,000 people.
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Already, inaugural organizers are bracing for a record-setting crowd if Obama is elected, and it would fall to his campaign to organize the official Presidential Inaugural Committee, which would do everything from raising private money to finance the ceremony and surrounding balls and events, to deciding which military units would march down Pennsylvania Avenue, and, yes, finding all those portable toilets.

While none of the officials involved, including those on Capitol Hill, at the Pentagon, in the National Park Service and at the Secret Service, would speculate on raw numbers publicly before the votes are even counted, several said privately they were expecting an “enormous” turnout, in the range of 500,000 to 1 million, should Obama win.

According to the White House, President Bush drew crowds of 300,000 at his 2001 and 2005 inaugurations. But current projections put an Obama inaugural within striking distance of becoming the largest event ever held on the National Mall. To do that, his team would have to top the 1.2 million estimated at Lyndon Johnson’s inaugural in January 1965; the estimated 1 million for the bicentennial fireworks display in July 1976; and the estimated 800,000 who came to the Desert Storm victory parade in 1991.
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