Tea Party Descends on DC, Obama Flees to Minnesota

From most indications this morning there could well be hundreds of thousands of Americans flooding into Washington today to protest the out-of-control government spending threatening to bankrupt us. Unfortunately, Obama doesn't have the guts to even remain in the city and fled town for Minnesota.

As President Obama flew to Minnesota on Saturday to rally support for his health care plan, thousands of protesters from around the country arrived here to demonstrate against the White House and Congress for what they say is an ever-expanding intrusion of government.

On a cloudy and cool September morning, scores of people waved flags and carried signs as they arrived in Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington for a march to the capital. The event was being billed as the culmination of summer protests at town meetings, where opposition to the president’s health care plan boiled over.

“This is not some kind of radical right-wing group,” Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview as dozens of people streamed by him a few blocks from the White House. “I just hope the Congress, the Senate and the president recognize that people are afraid of what’s going on.”They came by bus, car and airplane, arriving here from Texas and Tennessee, New Mexico and New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The hand-written messages on their signs told the story of an intense distrust with government, which began well before Mr. Obama took office and extends far beyond the effort to overhaul health care.One sign declared: “Congress: are you stoned or just stupid? Please wake up and save America.” Another said, “We are under attack by our own government.” And several signs said, “Our Constitution has termites!”

The crowd, organized by anti-tax groups, spilled from the plaza onto Pennsylvania Avenue and the surrounding streets as the demonstrators gathered for a march to Capitol Hill. It opened peacefully, with few visible signs of counter-protesters. The Democrats were leaving their message to the president, who warned in his weekly address on Saturday that nearly half of all Americans under age 65 could lose their health coverage at some point in the next decade.

Expect the typical sneering condescension from the media, who wishes these these would go away; what coverage they offer will likely be dismissive.

Traffic-cam streams from DC can be seen here. The Democrats weakly tried to float wildly overinflated crowd estimates in a transparent attempt to make this gathering look smaller than expected, but anyone looking at the crowds this morning can't help but be impressed by the turnout.

No doubt the left will try and disrupt things and will probably have some of their goons from the unions or the criminals from ACORN trying to start a confrontation. I think they'll be ignored if that's the case and I'm sure enough folks are out in force with video cameras ready in case the thugs try something.

It's a shame the President is too cowardly to face the protesters. His claims to want to unite people and work in bipartisan fashion never seemed more empty.

Update: Reader Mark sends along this video. Enjoy.