By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist Officials estimate that anywhere from 350,000 to 1.5 million people from across the country converged on Washington this past weekend to protest President Obama’s policies, making it one of the largest protests of its kind in recent history. “As a journalist who wears his cynicism like a badge of honor, to say that today's tea party protest wildly exceeded my expectations would be an understatement,” said journalist Mark Hemingway of National Review Online, who attended the event. “I've yet to see a reliable estimate of the crowd size and the cops seemed bound and determined to keep any photographers away from any high vantage points, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't well into six figures.” ABC News reported that the Washington DC Fire Department estimated the crowd to be somewhere between 60 to 70 thousand, however most say the size of the crowd and the impact on traffic in the area was evidence that the crowd was much larger and possible even one million strong. The London Telegraph reports the number to be anywhere from 1.5 to two m illion people. Organizers of the event included the Tea Party Express, Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, Freedom Works, and others. As Hemingway observed: “As for the composition of the crowd, well I personally spoke to people from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Idaho, Alaska, Delaware, Tennessee, Nevada, California, Montana, as well as Virginia and Maryland. “What also bears noting is that a lot of people came by bus — and of the people that came to the march by bus, almost all came on privately chartered buses organized by someone they knew. I asked one guy, who came up from South Carolina with 160 people on three buses, who put his trip together. He laughed and said, ‘My neighbor.’ Can we drive a stake through the astroturf claim now?” Most of the people came to express their concerns about excessive government spending, bailouts, health care reform, the growth of government and soaring deficits. They carried signs that read “Go Green Recycle Congress,” “I’m not your ATM,” and “Pull the plug on Obamacare.” Terri Hall, 45, of Florida, told the Telegraph that she attended the march because she’s upset about government spending. "Our government has lost sight of the powers they were granted,' she said, adding that the country was being put at risk by out-of-control deficit spending. Anna Hayes, 58, a nurse from Fairfax County, said she came to the march because she was concerned about Obamacare. “This is the first rally I've been to that demonstrates against something, the first in my life. I just couldn't stay home anymore.” Andrew Moylan, of the National Taxpayers Union, received a roar of approval after he told protesters “Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored.”   The day before the march, the White House claimed it was unaware of the event and President Obama chose to attend a town hall meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota to promote his health care plans to an estimated 15,000 supporters while the march was in progress. With the exception of Fox News and a few other outlets, coverage of the colossal march was mostly non-existent, buried on back pages or heavily biased, such as a Washington Post story where marchers were accused of racism. However, protestors let the press know what they thought of their unbalanced coverage. They shouted “Shame on the press” while marching past the Newseum, a museum dedicated to honor the news media, and heckled CNN’s Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser with shouts of “Glenn Beck!” and “State run media!”  © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com