Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' Rally Draws Tens of Thousands to National Mall

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, at the spot Martin Luther King Jr. spoke 47 years ago, conservative commentator Glenn Beck told a huge "Restoring Honor" rally Saturday that the United States has "wandered in the darkness" for too long.
Beck is a widely-watched Fox News personality and dogged critic of President Obama. But on Saturday, he drew a line from the biblical Moses to George Washington to Abraham Lincoln -- whose statue loomed behind him -- to King who gave his "I have a dream" speech in 1963, launching the modern civil rights movement. Beck's decision to schedule his rally on the anniversary angered some African America leaders, but he said it was not intentional and attributed the date to "divine providence."
New York civil rights leader Al Sharpton planned a march and counter-rally at the Tidal Basin, several long blocks away from the Beck event.
Beck said what was happening at his rally had nothing to do with politics "and everything to do with God." The crowd -- tens of thousands, many clutching American flags -- spilled from the Lincoln Memorial all way down to the Washington Monument. "Something that is beyond imagination is happening," Beck said. "America today begins to turn back to God."
Former Alaska Gov, Sarah Palin also spoke, as the "mother of a soldier." The event was billed as a "Salute to Veterans" and Palin's son Track served in the U.S. Army in Iraq. Palin said she felt the "spirit" of Martin Luther King Jr. "We must not fundamentally transform American as some would want us to do," she said.
On a comfortable, sunny day in the nation's capital, the predominantly white crowd soaked it all up and occasionally broke into change of "USA. USA." Organizers had a permit for a gathering of 300,000, the AP said.

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