20 or 25 to 12

When Chicago sang 25 or 6 to 4, it seemed lyrical. It had a sense of rhythm and movement. When Kerry estimates crowds in Harrisburg, it seems to lose the musical qualities.

On the day of the Harrisburg rally, Kerry estimated the crowd.
“Kerry singled out veterans as he surveyed a crowd packed in front of the Pennsylvania capitol that, by his estimate, reached 18,000 to 20,000.”

Give the campaign a day, and the number creeps upward. “A campaign official estimated the crowd at 25,000 people.”

But then the numbers come in somewhat lower - “In fact, the only agency that did anything close to a head count reported yesterday the crowd was more like 12,000. That number comes courtesy of James Borasi, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia District of the Secret Service, whose agents were on the ground screening everyone entering the rally site."

Now Kerry’s website conveniently pushes the previous estimates onto third parties “Initial crowd estimates of 20,000 from Mayor Stephen R. Reed were later revised upward by 5,000 people by police.”

It would be pathetic if it wasn't so humorous.