

Michele Bachmann's TP rally drew half-dozens of people (Photo: FITSNEWS.com

South Carolina:

Politicians, political operatives and members of the media came close to outnumbering attendees at a much-hyped Columbia, S.C. Tea Party rally starring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday. Only 300 people (including a horde of Palmetto political operatives) attended the event in downtown Columbia, S.C. – which is a generous estimate in our book. That attendance figure – confirmed by other media outlets – amounts to less than one-tenth the size of multiple crowds that have gathered at the S.C. State House in recent years in support of parental choice. It’s also roughly a tenth the size of the crowd that attended this same event in 2009.

Nevada:

The police estimate of 250 attendees in Carson City was far short of the record 2,000 who attended a similar, but much more rowdy rally in front of the Legislative Building on Tax Day in 2009. In Las Vegas, police estimated the crowd at about 250 people. Two years ago, the Tax Day rally drew from 1,500 to 2,000 people at Sunset Park.

Adding insult to injury, tea partiers in Carson City were subjected to this "musical" performance: Sharron Angle singing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA."

Steve Stevlic, head of the Chicago Tea Party, told FoxNews.com that he hasn't seen any signs of the movement fading. His tax day protest drew up to 5,000 people last year and, if decent weather prevails, he's expecting the same size this year, perhaps even larger. His event will be held Monday at noon in Daley Plaza. Among the speakers will be presidential candidate Herman Cain, Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill, and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Compared to those events, today's tea party rally in Chicago was a smashing success: "several hundred" showed up according to the Chicago Tribune. But even there, turnout was abysmal relative to expectations and past performance (emphasis added):

Well, at least Grover Norquist showed up, even if the crowd was fraction of what organizers had hoped. And he looked fantastic: