Yesterday, I got a chance to sit in on Sen. Nelson's town hall meeting in Omaha. What I saw inside was a mild, yet passionate crowd mixed with both health care reform supporters and opponents.
That's what was reported in the local press. Here's my take. Inside was calm, but outside was full of the most vile, racist, Obama haters in Omaha -- basically, all the people who attended Palin's speech last year. The worst of them had to be this loud mouth and scary looking woman with the sign:
Horrible right? Do you think that made the papers? Nope.
As I was leaving, this woman was trying to shove it in my face as if it would somehow change my mind on health care reform. It didn't, but I certainly have a new perspective on photoshop.
Moving on...
Kudos goes to Senator Nelson.
While I didn't agree with him on plenty -- his position on the public option continues to disgust me but more on that later -- he handled himself with pose throughout event and even smacked down plenty of outright lies about reform. However, I was disappointed when he vaguely compared health care reform to "class reform" and when he stated he'd be fine with a public option only as a fall back in places where no choice exists. It's better than say, Max Baucus, but that isn't saying much.
As a politician, I thought Nelson handled himself well. He came off sincere and thoughtful and all that.
The only part that made me gag a little was when he was talking about he shops at local groceries stories or Cabela's, etc... and that's how he stays connected. Somehow, I doubt that. I really do.
Everything was calm inside the place until the end. That's when it got interesting:
But tensions bubbled over when Nelson took a final question.
Given her chance to speak, Elaine Wells started by asking the audience whether they would refuse Medicare benefits when they turned 65. When only a few raised their hands, she began to make the case for eliminating private insurance and expanding government-run Medicare to cover everyone.
She didn't get far before she was drowned out by applause, jeers and shouts of “Read the Constitution!”
Elaine is a local activist known best for her anti-war efforts.
I'm glad she asked the question because it exposed the nutters in the room right away. I can tell you that only about a 1/3 of the room started shouting at Elaine and the Senator over the question. I heard at least one woman scream something along the lines of "Medicare isn't government!" It really is a testament to the 1st amendment that people are allowed to be so stupid in public.
They very fact that several people raised their hands was cause for me to vomit.
What I took away most from this event, Ben Nelson is movable. I really thinks he wants to support health care reform but doesn't have the political guts to do it in a conservative state -- not to mention the millions he's taken from the insurance companies. Right now, local groups need to get tough on Nelson over health care reform. That's why I've been really glad to see the efforts of Democracy for America in Nebraska as they highlight Mike Snider's story from Ralston.
It's working.
Nelson hasn't come out in favor of a public option yet but his rhetoric is incredibly different, and more friendly, then it was just two months ago. Remember, he was promising to kill the public option. It was a deal breaker for him. Now he's publicly saying he's open it which is a good thing for now. So despite opposition from local Nelson-ites, I hope DFA keeps up it's efforts and other national groups come in.
It'll also be interesting to see what kos' poll shows this week on Nebraska.
If you have a moment, give Senator Nelson a call. I promise you, he can be moved if we act:
1-202-224-6551
Anyway, that's my two cents for the day.