So today I attended the Town Hall meeting in Portsmouth. It was very smoothly done (well, except for the parking, but what can you do about that--public transport is non-existent in that area).
I know you all either have watched or can watch the specific clips--but I would encourage you to watch the whole thing. I have a MUCH better sense of where Obama is on this now. And I thought I was paying attention.
I'm going to give you some attendee impressions.
First impression: This guy is wikked smaht. They did not have us write down questions, they did not pre-screen us for what we wanted to ask. He just randomly picked from the audience.
The very cool thing about smart, confident people who stand on good data is that they do not fear being questioned. This was very apparent from this President.
His knowledge on this is deep. I am sure he understands this issue to his core. And if you think he doesn't, please watch the whole thing from one of the available sources.
He not only knows the issues and the data, he gets the social pieces of this. He's hearing the noise. And he mocks it--when it deserves mockage. Some of the issues are legitimate concerns that need to be allayed (and can easily be explained). And he takes those seriously from genuine questioners. But he mocks the ideas that deserve it. That seemed like a good strategy to me.
The other thing about this is that it was clear to me that the screamers are complete whackjobs. They are immigrant-hating, conspiracy-theorist, theocrat nuts. Dumb as a bag of rocks. They cannot figure out if Obama is a fascist or a communist. At the same time. As I was looking at them all I could think was that Saturday Night Live clip that said: I can't believe I'm losing to this guy. If we can't override these loons, it is our own fault.
On the way out I said to them: "We're getting health care and you can't stop it" and the answer back was: GO TO CHINA! What?
When I was leaving I was walking along with a woman who held a "No Obamacare" with the circle/slash sign. I asked her why she didn't want me to have health insurance. She was babbling about how socialized medicine is wrong. She wanted to keep her doctor. I told her we were assured today that she could. So then she was telling me about her friend who was on Medicare right now and had only 30% function of some organ, and had been waiting 2 months for something to happen. I asked her why they didn't get private insurance then, if that's what you want. She said they were disabled. I said, yeah--but why don't they buy private insurance if they think that's how to get it done? She said that's what her parents do. But she never answered why this other person didn't buy private insurance if that was the mechanism to get it done.
She then proceeded to tell me that this was moving too fast and we needed to stop and take care of all these other things first--the illegals. I asked her how much of a problem that was. She assured me that she lived right near Canada and she saw it all the time. I laughed. I said, "Really? Canadians are coming over the border in hoards to pay for health care?" She assured me they are.
I couldn't stop laughing.
When she got to her car she said, "Good luck losing your health care!" What? I never told her I had any. She couldn't know I was from Massachusetts, and I'm all set. :)
Listen, folks, this is coming. We are going to be able to do this. The loonies are looking to everyone like the troglodytes they are. But there are a couple of things:
- We need to have Obama's back on this. He hears us, he's giving us what we need and can obtain. Undermining him from the left will not serve this discussion well.
- We need to mock the hell out of the troglodytes. They already look completely foolish, and it isn't like we'll ever get those votes anyway. Just work on the middle. They are reachable. Take your cues from Obama and use them. There was great ammunition in this event. Watch the whole thing if you think you will be in conversations about this. Learn, Grasshopper.
Yes we can.
Update: Link to the CSPAN recording of the event, hat tip to indybend