This is what a crowd of 215,000 people looks like. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

Prior to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," there was abundant speculation — by me and many others, including Catholic desktop-support guy — about how many people would show up on the National Mall on Saturday. The number of Porta Potties ordered by Comedy Central meant that organizers expected an attendance of around 150,000, according to the Wall Street Journal, and I told Politico that that number was "on the low side." A crowd estimate commission by CBS News suggests my prediction was right: AirPhotosLive.com says some 215,000 people attended the rally. The same firm estimated that 87,000 people attended the Glenn Beck rally in August. (Canada's CTV, meanwhile, put the Stewart rally at 250,000.)

As CBS notes, the U.S. National Park Service doesn't provide crowd estimates, but the Times' Brian Stelter tweeted the following on Saturday:

Comedy Central's original permit said it expected 60,000 ralliers. By Beck's standards, though, the rally was a failure. Earlier this month, he said, "There should be 300 million people on the Mall or they are absolutely the most powerless people on the planet.” So this makes Beck himself ... what's even worse than powerless?

Helpless? Lame?