Come on-- I've gone to plenty of protests that were larger than October 26. The Webster pro-choice march was 500,000 people and I remember going to anti-homeless marches back then that were a couple of hundred thousand.
Seattle was impressive because it was in Seattle-- 50,000 people there is an amazing number, which is why it shocked and stunned the media, who were not expecting it. But 100,000 in DC is a good turnout but nothing astounding by historical measures.
Plenty of bourgy groups have organized mass rallies in DC, so the WWP only looks good compared to the fractured nature of the rest of the left. But they also had an imminent war with Bush doing much of their organizing for them.
But like the mass marches that proceeded the Gulf War, if the antiwar left doesn't figure out how to broaden its appeal, these pre-war marches will not be the beginning of the movement, but the high point.
-- Nathan Newman