Bad Weather, A Stolen Thunder And Some Crowd Spinning.

Today’s turnout was compromised by many factors, opening the door for malicious spin and legitimate questions.

Here’s a mischievous question for the average Hariri or March 14 diehard: If you were a mother who just learned that an international terrorist has been bombed in next door Syria, and that his funeral was taking place at the same day as the one you and your teenage kids planned to attend. If you add the stormy weather and the mention of the word “massacre” a few days ago by a lunatic ex-general, how excited will you be to get stuck in traffic for 3 hours to mark February 14?

That was pretty much the plight of the average demonstrator today. Still, the turnout managed to be impressive, but how impressive?

The expectations were set so high that even the slightest spotting of unoccupied space made way for sneers from the opposition: “The puny crowd does not suite the memory of Rafik Hariri”, Wi’am Wahhab scoffed on OTV, a station that was trying to pick holes in the turnout. “The car movement is almost normal in Tripoli”, their cheeky reporter said, in reference to the day when Tripoli, a loyalist stronghold, was almost empty because everyone was demonstrating in Beirut back in 2005.

It was not meant to be this way. The idea was to overwhelm the entire world with the majority’s crowds. It did not help that international coverage of Lebanon now had to be shared with coverage of Imad Mughniyeh’s funeral, which is also expected to attract large crowds. Moreover, one cannot dismiss fatigue, fear and the outright disgust of the average Lebanese who chose to stay home. That’s a lot of water in March 14’s wine.

March 14 decided to fight a wrong war over crowds -dare I say an unwinnable one?- instead of focusing on the war of ideas and hearts and minds. Now we have to endure the silly yet all too usual spin and counterspin over the size of the crowds.

**Update**
The turnout seemed to be really huge. Check this out.