How many really were at the Searchlight Tea Party?

The correct answer to that question is "enough". By that I mean that there were enough people there to make it the event organizers thought it would be. To be sure, more than a few in the media came to Searchlight convinced that it would be a small crowd. Their hopes were dashed almost immediately as the line of cars to get into the event proved that it was going to be big enough to prevent those writers from legitimately downplaying the event.

Little old Searchlight is only 800 people. It's hard to get to. Yet, initially, organizers said they'd get between 5,000 to 10,000 people. Metro estimated the crowd at 8,000. AP used the number 9,000. Politico used the number 20,000. Tea Party folks thought there may have been as many as 30,000.

I'd say the best conservative number is that Metro number, but it probably was somewhere near the 10,000 mark. But it really doesn't matter. It was a big enough crowd to send the message to the world that this movement is something to be reckoned with.

Here's the picture that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday. It's the best angle to show the crowd. You make your own guess.