Many obscene puns on Bush, the most describable being GOOD BUSH, BAD BUSH, with illustrations.

Many slogans from Michael Moore territory, and beyond: OSAMA [HEART] BUSH. THE CRIMINAL RETURNS TO THE SCENE OF HIS CRIME. One of this variety was rather theological: BUSH + SATAN, as a campaign ticket.

One slogan was rather wistful: BUSH IS SAURON, SAVE THE SHIRE.

As the show wended its way into Union Square, organizers and cops kept the demonstrators moving, then dispersing out of the square, to avoid congestion and jam-ups. The organizers were claiming 400,000 (how many really marched will be impossible to say).

The crowd seemed to conist of: kids doing this, instead of going to college the week before Labor Day; the hard left (Socialist Workers Party, ANSWER, Free Mumia types); residents of foreign countries, including gayness construed as a foreign country (I saw a party of Haitians, and one flag of Liberated Iraq–not Iraq, but, I suppose, Falluja and Mookie’s temporary HQ).

This is street theater and, by itself, meaningless. You can get hundreds of thousands of people to show up for anything in this country. Pro-lifers have been rallying in DC on the Roe anniversary for years, without budging the law of the land. The possible real world effects are two: 1) If the swing center is influenced by the notion that Bush is a liar and/or an incompetent, then Bush may well lose. 2) If left-wing discipline holds (and I do not doubt it will), then Nader will not be a factor.

Meanwhile, for the other America, I saw a woman wearing a visored cap with a W on it going out of Bergdorf Goodman.